Mexican Revolution
by RyansDreamMaker
Summary: Charlie, Miles, Bass, Conner, and Jeremy have carved out a life for themselves while traveling together. It's strange and frustrating at times, but they're a family, and families stick together. Eventual Charloe.
1. Chapter 1

A/N I've been working on this one for a while now, but have been waiting until I decided how it will end before I posted the first chapter. I've been writing lots of fluffy crap lately, so be warned, this will have lots of swearing, shooting, stabbing, people being creepy assholes, and most likely smut at some point in the future. It's been a while since I wrote the other ones, but this is a part of my Badass Charlie series, so expect a lot of girl power and the boys being all around morons or babies. Or in Conner's case, both. And while the other two aren't my favorite things that I've written, you can go read Addictions and Stubborn Habbits, if you're bored.

Reviews are always appreciated!

OK, I'll shut up now. :-)

* * *

 _ **Somewhere in Arizona**_

"Seriously, you guys wanna stay here?" Conner whined.

Miles groaned loudly as they walked through the derelict town. Charlie moved behind Conner and mimed strangling him for Jeremy's viewing pleasure. Bass, ever the patient father, calmly spoke to his son.

"There isn't another town around here for miles. We either stay here or sleep in the desert, and I don't know about you but a bed would be really nice right about now."

Conner grumbled something under his breath but kept his stupid to himself for the time being. Charlie turned to Bass while they walked and gave him a low bow, mouthing 'thank you' for the temporary relief from Conner's whining. Bass rolled his eyes at her dramatics but smirked smugly nonetheless. Pretty much everything she did made him smile. Ignoring his childish friends, Miles made a beeline for the nearest establishment that promised alcohol.

The strange, little family made their way into the bar, picked a booth at the back and slipped in. Jeremy and Charlie on one side, Bass and Conner on the other with Miles pulling up a chair at the end. It was a good sized place with a nice weekday crowd, a little rowdy, but all the good bars were anyway. A harassed looking waitress with long black hair and a dress that barely covered her ass stomped up to their table.

"What can I get you boys?" Her eyes landed on Charlie, who with her long blonde hair and low cut tank top was definitely not a man, and offered a fake sort of smile in apology. "Sorry 'bout that. So what'll it be?"

Conner steered the waitresses attention toward himself, he must not have noticed her uninterested expression being to distracted by her outfit. "Why don't you bring us a big bottle of the best you've got and then come join us." He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. The waitress, who was most likely used to that sort of thing, merely turned around and headed back to the bar with a huff.

Jeremy chuckled and whispered to Charlie. "Strike one." She nodded, they had been through this before.

Conner stared after his new friend with a dissapointed look on his face. No one else mentioned his failed attempt at flirting, they had long since learned that insulting his 'manhood' would only cause more of a headache for them later. The waitress came stomping back with a bottle of something brown and a stack of glasses, she all but slammed them down onto the table before glaring at Conner and prancing away.

The rest of them all shared silent looks of amusement while Miles poured everyone a drink and started sliding the glasses around the table. Once everyone had a drink, he lifted his own glass in a toast. "To..."

This was their own little game, you weren't allowed to drink until everyone had toasted to _something_. It basically boiled down to 'what are you thankful for?' It could be serious or ridiculous, but the rules were that no one got a drink until everyone was grateful for at least one thing. None of them remembered who started it, but they all seemed inclined to blame Jeremy. Especially on days when none of them were feeling particularly grateful.

"To random towns in the middle of nowhere with half decent bars." Miles tipped his glass at Conner, indicating that he should go next.

Conner growled at him, but raised his glass anyway. No one had ever said what the consequence of not playing was, but they all seemed to know it wouldn't be pretty. "To hot chicks in bars that actually like men." They all chuckled as he pointed at Jeremy.

"To women who like men in general." They all laughed as the game reached Charlie.

"To men who like woman," she said with a grin. They all howled with laughter at that as everyone's eyes fell to Bass who raised his glass.

"To what is, hopefully, some good whiskey." They all murmured their agreements and tossed back the first glass like they did this sort of thing everyday, which really, they did.

Miles hummed as he started refilling his glass. "Not bad stuff, I might have to grab a bottle to go."

Conner, who was still pouting about his less than friendly waitress friend, rolled his eyes. "You always say that."

"Do not."

"Do too."

Jeremy and Bass both groaned. Miles and Conner had a habit of fighting like three year olds over the same toy. "Don't even start you two," Charlie warned them, "or you'll both be on dishes duty for the rest of the week." Both men glared at her but kept their mouths shut. Charlie was like the mother hen of the group, if she said something was going to happen, it did.

Conner drank down another glass, sent Miles another glare, and then stomped away from the table without another word. Miles slid into his abandoned seat next to Bass and the four of them sat quietly together, content to enjoy each other's company for a while, as they watched Conner make his rounds around the bar.

Jeremy broke the silence. "Alright, I'll start the betting at two laundry duties says he'll strike out completely tonight."

Miles tilted his head back and forth, deep in thought. "Nah, two days of dishes duty says he'll get it on the fourth girl. The waitress counts as one."

Bass just shook his head, he never liked getting involved in this particular activity. This was another one of the games that they played. Whenever they stopped in a town, the boys - though mainly Conner - liked to pick up a girl to blow off some steam. Usually, the rest of them entertained themselves with Conner's failures - or on occasion - success by betting on how he would do.

Charlie watched Conner shmoozing up to some pretty red head that didn't look all that interested. "I bet four first-to-take-a-baths that not only does he leave with a girl tonight, but that he'll leave with two."

Miles, Bass, and Jeremy all stared at her like she'd lost her mind. "What?" She shrugged. "I like getting my bath first, then I don't have to sit in your guys' nasty filth."

They all shook their heads and Bass, who prided himself on not betting on whether or not his son would get laid, said, "bad bet Charlie. He usually barely makes it with one."

Her only response was one of her trademark little smirks.

After a few minutes, the redhead shooed Conner away and Jeremy kept up the running tally. "Strike two."

The younger Monroe steered himself toward a booth full of girls, some of them looked younger than Charlie, and slapped on his best charming grin as he pulled up a chair. They watched him talk to a pretty brunette for about five minutes before a large man with tattoos running up and down his arms came up to stand behind where Conner was sitting. Bass looked ready to move in case Conner needed some assistance, but apparently the boy wasn't all stupid, he said goodnight to the brunette and watched her walk away arm in arm with her boyfriend.

"Strike three. One more and you're on dishes for two days, Miles." The other man shrugged. They all knew that he didn't really mind the dishes anyway.

Conner, who was looking more and more annoyed as the evening wore on, picked out a blonde girl who was wearing a very tight and very tiny t-shirt as a dress at the bar. He seemed to be doing pretty well for a while with his hand gradually sinking lower and lower towards her ass, but just as they saw him lean in to seal the deal, another girl in an equally tiny dress appeared to have an urgent looking conversation with her friend. The two girls talked and the blonde turned back to Conner, said something, kissed him on the cheek, and then hurried out of the bar with her friend.

Jeremy gave a low whistle. "Strike four. Sorry, Miles." But Miles merely huffed a laugh and refilled his drink.

They all pretended not to be watching as Conner stormed back towards their table. "What is wrong with the girls in this town?"

Charlie gave him a look of concern that would have seemed sincere if the others hadn't been listening to her laugh at Conner's expenseI mere seconds ago. "Why, what happened?"

Not noticing her smiling behind her glass, Conner continued to rant. "I had this great blonde chick, huge ass, right where I wanted her and then her little friend shows up and suddenly she has to leave because of a 'business opportunity.' I mean, who is doing business right now, it's the middle of the night!"

Jeremy snorted into his glass, covering it up as a cough while Charlie hid her face behind her hand. Miles however, made no attempt to hide his amusement. "Well I don't know, I'm just guessing here, but hookers usually do business at night. Don't they?"

At that, even Bass couldn't hold back a laugh. Conner glared all around the table. "Ha, ha, very funny. I don't see any of you doing any better."

This was always the bad part about Conner striking out, it meant that they would have to listen to him whine until they made it to the next town and hope that he got lucky there just to make it stop. Charlie wasn't really looking forward to another week of grumpy Conner. So she decided to try and prevent the problem ahead of time.

"I'll tell you what, I'll help you out tonight. How's that sound?"

He looked at her doubtfully. "Are you offering yourself here, or..."

"What?" She made a disgusted face. "No, been there, done that." Miles choked on some whiskey, but other than that, no one even acknowledged the statement. "I mean that I can get you a girl."

Conner narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. "And why would you do that?"

"Because then you'll owe me one, and I like having people owe me favors."

He thought about it for a moment longer, then nodded. "Alright, deal." Then he added quickly, "but she can't be ugly or old."

Charlie rolled her eyes as she got up from the table. "But when I bring her back, you can't tell her about our deal. I'm just gonna make it seem like I'm talking up a friend."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just go."

The boys watched her approach the bar, her eyes scanning the crowd as if it were a battlefield full of deranged killers rather than a bunch of drunken idiots. Her eyes stopped on something in the far corner and the boys all crained their necks to see what she was looking at. A small table with two woman drinking and laughing sat in the corner of the room. Charlie approached the women and pulled up a chair.

She was gone for so long that the boys had gotten bored and started up a conversation about the successful use of pickup lines. Charlie was lucky she hadn't been there for that portion of the conversation as she probably would have died from laughing too hard.

When she finally did come back, it was with the two women in tow. One was tall, but curvy with light brown hair, the other was shorter and had darker hair, but had the same curvy physique. The two girls were in their early twenties and clearly sisters.

"Girls," Charlie announced, "this is my friend Conner. Conner, this is Laura and Leslie. They've lived here in town their whole lives and said that they would be happy to show you around."

Conner eyed the girls, who were undeniably very hot, up and down approvingly. "Well isn't that nice of them." He stood up and kissed the back of each of their hands. "I can't wait to see what you ladies have to show me."

The shorter girl, who seemed to be a bit younger, giggled while the older girl grinned. "Believe me, we are just as excited as youI are." Then she turned to Charlie and shook her hand. "It was really nice meeting you."

Charlie smiled back and quickly put the hand that the girl had shaken underneath the table. "You too. You guys have fun."

Jeremy waited until the door of the bar had swung shut behind Conner before turning to Charlie with raised eyebrows. "What do you have in your hand?"

She looked over at him innocently. "Nothing."

He narrowed his eyes and then grabbed her arm, yanking it up onto the table. Miles, who had also seen her try to hide whatever it was, grabbed her hand and pried her fingers open. In her palm sat ten shining diamonds.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Bass asked.

"That girl, Lauren or Lexi, or whatever gave it to her. Didn't you see?"

Charlie wrenched her hand back from them with a scowl. "So what, who cares where they came from?"

"But why did she give you money?" Bass looked around the table, finding incredulous looks all around. Then it dawned on him. "Oh my God, did you just pimp out my _son_?" He hissed across the table.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic Bass. Think about it, Conner got what he wanted, the girls got what they wanted, we got what we wanted. Everybody's happy. It's a win-win."

Bass glared at her while Jeremy asked, "wait, what do we get out of it?"

Charlie grinned and signaled for the waitress, she came stomping over but seemed slightly happier once she noticed that Conner was gone. "Bring us another bottle, would you?" Charlie asked with a smile and tossed her a few of the diamonds.

As the woman came stomping back with their second bottle of the night, Miles actually smiled. "Damn, we should sell him off more often."

Looking at the tempting bottle of whiskey, Bass seemed inclined to agree until he saw the guilty look on Charlie's face. "This isn't the first time you've done this, is it?"

She smiled just a little too brightly, then gave up the charade completely. "Well it was either that or fuck him myself, and frankly, the second one wasn't even really an option. It's like I said, been there, done that, not going back."

Miles and Jeremy both laughed loudly and Bass found himself smiling despite his efforts not to. Miles rolled his eyes and shook the new bottle of whiskey in front of his best friend's face. "You know, if it bothers you that much, you don't have to drink it."

Bass frowned, eyed the very tasty looking drink sloshing in front of him, and snatched the bottle out of Miles' hand. "Nah, the kid's happy, we might as well celebrate."

The four of them toasted to good whiskey, great bars, hot girls, and stupid boys that will do anything to get laid.

XxX

The next morning, they all sat around the safe house waiting for Conner to get back so they could move on to the next town.

"Where is he?" Bass asked for the five hundredth time as he paced back and forth in front of the porch.

Miles, who was sitting on the front steps cleaning his gun while they waited, spared his friend a quick glance. "He's probably on his way. Stop worrying."

But Bass continued to pace. Jeremy merely shook his head and smiled at his friend while Charlie sat against a tree trunk using her knife to clean dirt from under her fingernails. It wasn't unusual for Conner to be late after one of his nights out, but no matter how many times it happened, Bass still worried himself sick about it.

"Will you quit it?" Charlie finally growled at Bass.

He stopped pacing and glared at her. "I'll stop as soon as my son gets back from being with the girls _you_ set him up with. What did you do, set him up with a bunch of closet psychos? What if they've already cut him up into little bitty pieces!"

Raising her eyebrows amusedly, Charlie looked pointedly at something just over Bass' shoulder. He turned, finding Conner watching him with a wide grin.

"When did you get here?" Bass screeched.

"Oh, about the point where I was eaten alive by crocodiles."

Bass' cheeks turned a barely noticeable shade of pink as he grabbed his pack and slung it over his shoulders. "They don't have crocodiles in Arizona, Conner. Don't be ridiculous." He then turned and started heading west, which always seemed to be their default direction.

Everyone else chuckled as they watched him stomp off. "So, how'd it go with the girls?" Jeremy asked Conner as they all moved to follow Bass.

"Dude, those girls were crazy," he answered with a smile. "We were up _all_ night. That's why I was so late."

"Ah, so it was Charlie's fault you were late." Miles turned to his niece with a frown. "Which means that you get to deal with grumpy Bass, since it's your fault anyway." Charlie stuck her tongue out at him, but quickend her pace to catch up with Bass anyways. He ignored her as they fell automatically in step with each other.

"You know," she started, "if you ever need some help with the ladies, I can totally hook you up."

He scoffed. "I don't need the help, trust me."

Looking him up and down, Charlie nodded. "I bet not."

"Did you just check me out?"

"Yes."

Bass looked at her for a moment. "And?"

Charlie shrugged. "It's a shame you're not interested. I'm sure I could find plenty of women ready to pay top dollar for that ass."

"Really?" He smirked over at her. "And what would you pay for it?"

Charlie stopped walking and stepped right up to him so they were standing toe to toe. "I have a feeling..." She brushed her lips along his jaw, making his heart beat frantically in his chest. "That I wouldn't have to pay anything. All I'd have to do is ask."

Bass cleared his throat awkwardly. "Is that what you think?" She merely hummed in response, her lips hovering near his left ear, making his pants tighten uncomfortably. The others suddenly came following around the corner and Bass pushed Charlie away from him roughly before taking off again, leaving her smirking in his wake.

"What did you do now?" Miles asked.

She plastered on her most innocent smile. "Nothing, Uncle Miles. I promise."

But as she followed after Bass, Charlie distinctly heard Miles say, "yeah, right."


	2. Chapter 2

The house they were staying in was much smaller than what they were used too. With only two bedrooms and a miniscule living room, it was generous to call it a tight fit. Normally, Charlie objected to any special treatment because of her gender, but this was one of the few things she was willing to let the boys be 'gentleman' about because it meant that she got her own room. A quick tournament of rock, paper, scissors, had earned Conner and Jeremy the other room to share. A round of tic-tac-toe later, and it was decided that Miles would get the couch and Bass would have to make due with the floor.

Bass complained that he always got stuck with the floor. Miles told him to stop trying to out maneuver him in tic-tac-toe, it was only a game for God's sake. Charlie told them both to shut up or she'd make them both sleep on the floor... They kept their mouths shut after that.

As they ate their dinner crowded around their tiny fire, everyone seemed content with their lives. Everyone except for Conner. He picked moodily at the stew in his bowl.

"This meat is tough." The other boys all turned to Conner, begging him with frantic eyes to shut the fuck up before he upset Charlie.

But it was too late. Charlie glared at him. "Why don't you make dinner next time, then?" The boys groaned inwardly as Conner snorted.

"Because cooking isn't my job."

"Job?" She asked incredulously. "You think it's my _job_ to serve you?"

Miles, Bass, and Jeremy all slurped down the remainder of their dinner and tried to make a hasty exit before Charlie caught them. Unfortunately, Conner seemed to realize a little to late that he'd said the wrong thing.

"No, I just meant-"

"-Oh, you just meant that because I'm a _girl_ , it's automatically my job to make the food." She leaned towards Conner with her own spoon raised as if she might attack him with it, forcing Bass to reluctantly intervene.

"OK, I'm tired, so I guess it's time for bed." He motioned for both Charlie and Conner to get out of his way because they were both sitting where he was apparently planning to sleep. "Go on you two, it's time for bed."

Luckily, if there was one thing Charlie hated more than having her food critiqued, it was being told what to do.

"Fuck off, Bass. I'll go to bed whenever I want." And even though it went against what she said, Charlie glared at him and then at Conner before stomping up the stairs. The boys waited until her bedroom door slammed shut to yell at Conner.

"Do you have a bad memory or something, or do you just like pissing Charlie off?" Miles growled at him.

"It's not my fault she's so sensitive. All I did was say that the meat was tough. It _was_ , I just told her the truth!"

"It doesn't matter. You never tell a girl that her cooking sucks. How do you not know that?" Jeremy hissed.

"And you never call a girl 'sensitive', you idiot. Especially not Charlie, you're lucky she doesn't come back down here and knock you on your ass just for that." Bass told him.

"Why do you guys always take her side? No matter what happens, it's always my fault. You guys are always up my ass about something, but you follow her around like fucking dogs on a leash." Conner shook his head disgustedly at them before going upstairs as well and slamming his door shut. Jeremy frowned up the steps towards his and Conner's room.

"My stuff is up there, you think he'd get mad if I went and got it?" As if in answer, Jeremy's pack came hurtling down the stairs. Clothes, books, and extra rounds falling out and thumping down each step along the way. He picked up his old copy of _'The Hunger Games'_ and yelled up the steps, "thank you!" They heard something that sounded distinctly like a 'fuck you' but ignored it and went about finding Jeremy a place to sleep in the already cramped living room.

XxX

Bass woke up the next morning to Miles' obnoxiously loud snoring and with Jeremy's feet digging into his back. He rolled over to find Jeremy curled up in a ball using his pack as a pillow and Miles' jacket as a blanket. When he tried to scoot away from his friend, Jeremy rolled towards him and tucked his head under Bass' armpit. After a few more useless attempts at getting away from his cuddly friend, he decided it would be easier just to get up.

Since Bass was always the first one up, starting the morning routine and waking the others was his job. He went about collecting water and set it to boil before going upstairs to wake up Conner, they always had to start with him because he took the longest time getting out of bed. The door to his son's room creaked open, revealing a completely empty bedroom.

"Conner?" He called out quietly, as if he thought he might come out from hiding behind the door. But Bass checked behind the door and even in the small closet before he let the panic start to sink in. Conner's room was empty and his stuff was gone too.

Rushing down the stairs, he heard Miles mumble 'Jeremy, get off' before he burst through the door and out onto the front lawn. "Conner!" But his son's dark, curly head was no where to be found. Bass ran around the outside of the house looking for him but stopped just as he was about to run through a mud hole. There were a few scattered footprints around it, giving him an idea.

Back to the front yard, through the front door, past an irritated Miles with Jeremy rubbing an apparently sore shoulder, and up the stairs to Charlie's room. Bass crashed through the door, nearly toppling onto her bed on top of her, making Charlie groan. "Ten more minutes," she mumbled as she rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head.

Bass grabbed the blanket and ripped it off of the bed, revealing Charlie in nothing but her panties and tank top. "Uh..." He stood stunned for a moment, his eyes scanning over her strong calves and toned thighs, past her simple black panties to the strip of creamy pale skin beneath her tank top, over her breasts which were peaking out of the top of her shirt, and up to her eyes which were watching him with apparent amusement.

"Come for some morning fun, Bass?" She mocked him. He coughed and cleared his throat, shaking his head in an attempt to remind himself why he was there.

"Conner's missing," he finally blurted out. Charlie's smile dropped and she rolled her eyes before grabbing her blanket and rolling over to go back to sleep. Annoyed by her lack of action, Bass moved around to the other side of the bed. "Charlie, Conner is missing." But she merely huffed and pulled the blanket over her head again. "Charlie-"

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Well... I... Help me look for him. You can track him and then we'll find him."

Still under the blanket, Charlie huffed, and Bass could picture the irritated look on her face. "He's probably hiding somewhere jerking off. He'll be back."

Dropping to his knees beside the bed, he pulled the blanket back from Charlie's face so she could see how serious he was. "He took his stuff with him, Charlie. He's gone." She frowned at the pitiful look on his face and he could see her resolve breaking. "Please, Charlie." He begged. Rolling her eyes, Charlie pushed him out of her way so she could get up and pull on some pants. Bass took that as his cue to leave her alone for a few minutes and went back downstairs to find Miles and Jeremy packing up their stuff, both of them being unusually quiet.

"What's wrong with you two?"

Jeremy kept his eyes trained on the blanket he was rolling up, leaving Miles to answer for them. "I woke up with this asshole laying on top of me."

"I didn't mean too," Jeremy mumbled.

"Yeah, well I'm not your fucking teddy bear. Cuddle with somebody else!"

But before Bass could even think about dealing with those two, Charlie came stomping down the steps looking decidedly grumpy.

"What's up with you?" Miles asked her.

"Junior's missing again. Gotta go track him down." She slung her pack and crossbow over her shoulder and waved for Bass to follow. Out in the morning sunlight, Charlie took her time yawning and stretching, giving Miles and Jeremy enough time to get their stuff together and follow along as well. The three boys followed her around the house in a large circle a few times before deciding that it would be easier to sit and wait for her to tell them when she'd found what she was looking for. They munched on some dried jerky and bread while they waited and watched Charlie disappear into the woods surrounding the house. Fifteen minutes later, she came back into view and called for them to follow. She lead them out to the area around the back of the house that everyone had designated as the 'bathroom' and pointed at some footprints on the ground.

"Conner went through here early this morning, headed south."

Miles looked down at the mess of shoe prints littering the forest floor. "We've all been out here, how can you tell who's are who's?"

Charlie appeared to resist rolling her eyes with much difficulty, but patiently explained herself nonetheless. "You see those giant prints over there by that tree? Those are size fourteen, which means that they are obviously yours." She moved around to another tree and pointed to a trail that went past it. "These are twelves, so Jeremy made these."

Jeremy looked down at what were supposedly his footprints and spotted another, smaller set not far away. He pointed to them. "So those are Conner's?"

She couldn't resist rolling her eyes that time. "No, those are mine, you moron." She moved again to a rocky path between two trees and pointed down. "Elevens, these are Conner's."

"But I wear size eleven, too. How do you know those aren't mine?" Bass asked doubtfully.

"Because your boots are older than Conner's and the tread is worn down. You can still see the tread on his."

Cbarlie waited patiently while the boys inspected the outline of tread in the muddy shoe print. They even made Bass make a print right next to the one that was already there so they could compare them. After they finally decided that she must be right, Miles motioned for Charlie to take the lead.

"Alright über tracker, do your thing."

XxX

Conner's trail wasn't hard to follow, they had gone about five miles without an issue. He apparently hadn't been blessed with his father's sneaky skills. Some of the tracks were so obvious that even Jeremy was able to spot them.

"Hey, Charlie, over here." Jeremy called out to her from a spot in between two large trees.

Without even looking at him, she responded, "those are deer tracks, Jer. Definitely not Conner."

"No, not those," he hissed. "Look."

Charlie moved over to where he was standing and looked between some of the lower tree branches to see what he was looking at. Miles and Bass crowded around her to get a good look, too.

"Are those-" Bass started to ask.

"People." Miles finished for him.

Through the trees, they could see a small river running parallel to their path. On the other side of the river was a camp made up of five tents. They could see two woman washing clothes in the river and two young children playing a game nearby.

"Why would someone want to live all the way out here?" Jeremy asked.

"Does it matter? We should go talk to them though, maybe they've seen Conner." Bass suggested.

Miles shook his head. "No, look over there." He pointed farther up river where four men were standing around talking. "Those guys have guns. Whoever these people are, I don't think they're friendly."

"I couldn't hurt to _ask_ ," Bass protested.

"Dude, it's early. Can't you wait just a few more hours before you try getting us killed again?"

"My son is _missing_ , Miles."

"Oh, I'm sure he's fine. Probably found himself a nice little spot to jerk off."

Bass turned to glare at his best friend. "You know, if it was Charlie that was missing, you would do whatever it took to get her back. But since it's Conner, you don't even fucking care. It's your fault he took off anyway!"

"My fault? Maybe you should try keeping better track of your kid!" Charlie and Jeremy both groaned. Miles and Bass were best friends, practically brothers, and they had a bad habit of fighting like brothers usually do... all the time. The two men continued to fight while Charlie's attention was drawn away by the men on the opposite side of the river.

"Jer, look, one of them is leaving." And sure enough, they watched one of the men strap a bag full of stuff to his back and start wading through the water about twenty yards upstream from where they were.

"We should go talk to him." Charlie nodded in agreement and the two left Bass and Miles to their arguing, though they had moved on to ' _how did you not know your girlfriend was pregnant?_ ' Which Charlie thought was a little hypocritical on Miles' part considering that Emma had technically been his girlfriend at the time.

They waited until the man had come out of the river and walked about fifty yards before Charlie made the approach.

"Um, excuse me." The man turned around quickly with a hand on the button of the gun he had tucked into the front of his jeans. When he spotted Charlie, he slowly moved his hand away from the gun and looked her up and down. She shivered as his dark eyes travelled up and down her body.

" _Ay, mamí._ Javier at your service." He bent low and left a long, lingering kiss on her knuckles.

Charlie gave him her best charming smile. "I'm actually looking for my friend. We were camping but when I woke up this morning, he was gone."

Javier scowled but quickly covered it up. "I have an idea. Why don't you come with me and we can look for your friend together."

This wasn't going at all like Charlie wanted it too.

"You know what, I should probably just go back to camp and wait for him to come back." She made to walk away, deciding that they would just have to find Conner on their own when Javier grabbed her arm and yanked her towards him, making her crash into his chest.

"I'm just trying to be nice. why don't you show a little gratitude?"

Now utterly done with this guy's shit, Charlie grabbed for the gun in the front of his pants, clicked off the safety, and rammed the barrel right into his balls. "I have a better idea. You are gonna help me find my friend or I will pull this trigger. What do you think?"

Javier's dark eyes went wide with fear and Jeremy chose that moment to come out from his hiding place in the trees. When Javier spotted him, he called out.

"Help me! _Está loca!_ Please, help me!"

Jeremy snorted. "No way. You pissed her off. Now you have to deal with her."

Deciding to take his chances, Javier tried to push Charlie away from him, but all that did was end up with him shoved against a tree with Charlie's forearm braced across is throat.

"Now, my friend. Late twenties, six feet tall, dark curly hair. Have you seen him?" Something like recognition flashed across his face, but he shook his head. "Don't lie to me, Javier."

"I'm not, I swear!"

Charlie ripped the gun out of his pants and aimed right between his eyes. "Last chance. Don't lie to me again."

"He left."

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know." But at Charlie's raised eyebrow, he changed his story.

" _México_."

Jeremy came up to stand next to Charlie. "Mexico, what the hell does he want with Mexico?"

"Please," Javier begged. "I can't tell you. They will kill me."

"If you don't tell me where my friend is, _I'm_ going to kill you." Charlie stepped closer, pressing the gun into his chest.

"OK, OK, _Señor Nunez._ "

Jeremy, who hadn't been around when Miles and Bass brought Conner back from Mexico, looked confused, but Charlie suddenly had a deep sense of dread.

"What about Nunez?"

" _El jefé_ was very angry when Bennett left with that bitch, Monroe. He told everyone that if we find him and bring him back, that we will be rewarded."

Charlie tossed the gun to the ground and slammed herself against the scared man, wrapping her hands around his neck.

"You sent him back so Nunez could kill him."

He shook his head frantically, gasping for air. "No, no, not me. Alejandro, he's going back to pick up another shipment, he told Bennett that he could tag along. Bennett thinks that Nunez is back home, waiting for him with open arms."

Charlie released Javier's neck and pushed herself away from the tree angrily. "Damn it. He's gonna get himself killed."

Ignoring the man slumped against a tree and gasping for air, Jeremy shook his head. "We can't tell Bass. If he finds out that Conner left to go back to whoever this Nunez guy is, it'll crush him."

Charlie waved her hand impatiently, acknowledging that what he said was true, but deciding to deal with that particular problem later. "Let's just focus on getting him back before they blow his brains out. With any luck, Bass will never have to know."

And of course, Bass and Miles chose that moment to reappear from their fight, both apparently over it and unharmed. "What don't I need to know?" He asked, spotting the guy still struggling for breath on the ground.

Making a quick decision, Charlie kicked Javier in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious before turning to Bass. "Trust me, you don't want to know what I had to do to get that guy to talk."

Jeremy nodded quickly behind her. "Yeah, dude, it was... pretty sick."

Miles and Bass both frowned a little, looking confused, but before they could think too much about it, Charlie directed the group towards the Mexican border. "Come on, boys. Conner's this way."

* * *

A/N I normally really like writing dialogue but I have realized that writing for five people that are all trying to be apart of the same conversation is actually really hard, so I apologize for how repetitive it got. Hopefully I didn't screw it up too bad or get people confused, if I did, I'm sorry. Hope you guys still liked it though. The next chapter will involve more Bass/Charlie and Miles/Jeremy hanging out, so it'll be lots of fun.


	3. Chapter 3

Making camp that night was a subdued affair. Everyone had a job that they were usually responsible for; Charlie was the hunter, Bass and Miles swept the area around the site to make sure it was safe, Jeremy collected water, and it was Conner's job to build up the fire. As much as they all complained about Conner's uselessness, having to build the fire themselves made them all admit - very reluctantly - that maybe the kid had some uses after all. It was that particular realization that put everyone in a bad mood.

Bass had taken it upon himself to pick up Conner's slack, so they all watched him carefully add the kindling to the fire and set it ablaze. Meanwhile, Charlie had been silently cursing Conner for his childishness and stupidity. They had one little fight and he'd taken off running back to Daddy Nunez without a backward glance. Now Bass was determined to rescue him because she and Jeremy had been forced to lie and say that he was captured in order to save the man from yet another heartbreak. Suffice to say, Charlie couldn't wait to give Conner a piece of her mind.

They all ate quietly, except for Bass, who was stabbing the rabbit on his plate so forcefully that Charlie worried he might put his knife straight through it. She wondered if keeping the truth from him was the best way to go about the whole situation. Letting him believe that Conner had been kidnapped made him angry, but if she told him that his son had left voluntarily, he would be devastated. Either way, Bass still ended up hurt.

Jeremy watched Charlie while she watched Bass. He was worried that her own guilt for lying to Bass would affect her judgement. And while he didn't like lying to him either, he figured angry Bass was better than depressed Bass.

Meanwhile, Miles watched Jeremy, watching Charlie, who was watching Bass, with a worried expression. Whatever the two of them were hiding clearly wasn't good, but he wasn't so sure that he wanted to know about it either.

When the food had all been eaten and the dishes were done, everyone started getting ready for bed. Charlie laid her bedroll close to the fire while Miles set his own underneath a tree. Jeremy was in the process of laying his stuff out a few feet away from Miles when the other man started shouting.

"Oh, he'll no! You take your crap and sleep somewhere else."

"But I didn't even do anything!"

"I am not your cuddle-buddy, go sleep someplace else." Miles said firmly. Grumbling to himself, Jeremy gathered up his stuff and moved across camp to the spot furthest away from Miles.

Charlie chuckled to herself while she watched the boys argue, because no matter how much Miles complained, Jeremy was one of the few people he really did care about. Her attention turned back to Bass and her momentary happiness slipped away at the sight of the angry set of his jaw and tensed shoulders. He was still sitting near the fire, not even attempting to get ready for bed. Charlie approached him slowly and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. He didn't flinch away from her, which she supposed was a good thing, but he didn't acknowledge her either.

"Bass," she tried quietly. "You need to get some rest. We have no idea how far ahead of us Conner may have gotten, you're going to need your strength so we can catch up with him." He didn't move at first, making her think that he was ignoring her, but just as she was about to pull her hand away from him, he rose slowly to his feet and nodded.

"Goodnight, Charlie."

She gave him a small smile and was only a little disappointed when she didn't get one in return. "Night, Bass."

XxX

When he woke the next morning, Bass was already in a bad mood. His son had been kidnapped and was being taken back to a nut job that wanted to kill him, then on top of that, Charlie was lying to him about something. He wasn't sure what it was or why she was doing it, but it had been a long time since she had lied straight to his face, and it stung a little to have her suddenly revert back to their old ways. He rose from his bedroll to start waking the everyone else up, which only made his bad mood even worse.

Near the fire, Charlie was fast asleep laying on her back with Jeremy's leg draped across both of hers, his fingers twisted in the hem of her tank top, and his face buried in her hair. Something big and ugly reared its head deep inside of him, an all consuming hatred that almost managed to make him forget about Conner, burned in his chest. Bass shook his head roughly. There wasn't time for that. He strode over to where Charlie and Jeremy were sleeping comfortably and kicked Jeremy hard in the back.

"Get up, we need to move."

Charlie jerked upright immediately. "What time is it?" She groaned.

"Time to leave!" Bass barked back. She frowned up at him, her eyes suddenly filled with concern.

"Bass, what's wrong?" Guilt, slimey and slippery, settled in his stomach. Despite his rude wake up call, Charlie was still worried about him, which only made him feel worse for being dick.

"Nothing," he said with more force than strictly necessary, "We just need to hurry."

As Bass stomped off into the woods to releave himself, Miles rolled on to his side and looked over at the other two. "Really, Jeremy? You just had to piss him off."

Extracting himself from Charlie's side, Jeremy huffed indignantly. "I didn't do it just to make him mad. I can't help it, I get cold easily, you know that. _He_ knows that!"

Miles groaned, getting slowly to his feet. "Yeah, well, I don't think he cares about your cuddling issues when you've got yourself wrapped around _her_." He hooked his thumb in Charlie's direction like he didn't want to say her name out loud.

"I didn't mean too, she was just the closest warm body." Jeremy insisted.

Miles rolled his eyes hugely. "Yeah, tell that to lover-boy, see what he thinks of that."

"You guys do know that I can hear you, right?" Charlie asked flatly.

Miles made his shut-up-before-I-throw-up face at her. "Like you didn't already know, he follows you around like lovesick puppy."

Charlie growled at him. "That doesn't make me his property, I can sleep with whoever I want, and if he's got a problem with it, then he should grow a pair and talk to me himself."

As Charlie stomped off in the opposite direction that Bass had gone, Miles pulled Jeremy to his feet. "Do you think he'll ever figure it out?" Jeremy asked.

Miles shrugged his shoulders. "I just hope he does before Charlie finally decides that she's tired of waiting around."

XxX

The rest of the day went about as well as the morning had gone. So far, they had been traveling in Mexico's general direction with the hope of cutting off Conner and his friend Alejandro before they made it to the border. But they soon realized that they were much farther behind than they had originally thought.

"What do you mean they're two days ahead of us?" Bass shouted at her.

Charlie took a deep calming breath, trying to remind herself that Bass was just worried about his son. "They have a wagon." She pointed down to the thin, straight tracks that ran parallel to each other across the ground beneath their feet. "These tracks are two days old, a day and a half at the least."

Bass sighed hopelessly and slumped down on the hard desert ground, his anger dissipating into defeat as he realized that he might actually lose his son. "What am I going to do?" He asked quietly. Charlie glanced at Miles and Jeremy, finding both of them looking just as useless as Bass, and sighed.

"We'll figure it out." She sat down next to him and rubbed calming circles on his back. "If we can get some horses, we might be able to catch up. Probably not before the border, but at least before he gets to Nunez."

His blue eyes found hers, looking sad but just a little hopeful again. "Where the hell are we gonna find horses out here?" He waved his arms around them at the unaccommodating desert.

"We can steal them if we have too. Come on, Bass, we're not doing Conner any good by sitting around and pouting." Miles looked pointedly at his friend who finally seemed willing to listen.

"I wasn't pouting," he shot back.

"Yeah, you were." Miles grinned.

"Was not."

"Were too."

"Don't start that shit again, I will kill both of you." Charlie said loudly. The boys closed their mouths quickly and watched Charlie walk on ahead of them.

"Somebody's grouchy," Bass mused.

Charlie pretended not to hear him for fear of accidentally, actually killing him this time.

XxX

Luckily, the chance to get their hands on some horses came later that afternoon. They had been following the wagon tracks all day in the hot sun when they came across another small camp, much like the one they had found the day before near the river. Twelve tents were arranged in a large circle with a fire pit directly in the center where a few kids were playing with a black dog. Several horses were tethered to a cactus about twenty yards from the tent community.

"Do you guys think we can get some of those horses?" Bass asked.

But unfortunately, the desert wasteland that they'd been wandering through didn't provide any way to hide, so the kids had spotted them and started shouting in Spanish. " _Gringos! Gringos!_ "

"I don't think they're going to be all that friendly." And of course, the words had no sooner left Miles' mouth when men with guns started pouring out of the tents. "Move!" Miles shouted, though no one needed him to say it. As the bullets started flying, Charlie and Bass dove behind a stray boulder while Jeremy tried to take cover behind a cactus.

"I hate this fucking desert!" Jeremy yelled from where he was pressed up against the spikey plant.

Charlie resisted the temptation to laugh as Bass shoved her front more forcefully against the rock. "Stay down." Dust kicked up around them where the bullets were hitting the ground.

"No shit," she panted back. Bass ignored her smart remark and peered around the edge of their hiding place. "How many?" She asked him.

"I count six, maybe sev-"

BANG!

He flinched and ducked so low that their faces were only an inch apart. "Seven. Definitely seven."

"I'll go high, you go low?" Charlie clicked the safety off on her gun and cocked it. Bass nodded and looked over to where Jeremy and Miles were in serious trouble with both of them taking cover behind the same cactus. He caught Miles' eye and jerked his head in their attackers direction. Miles nodded back and held up three fingers.

"On three," Bass said quietly to Charlie, who was braced and ready to go.

"One," he saw Miles put one finger down.

"Two," another finger.

"Three."

They both sat up and started firing at random, scattering the men while Miles ran out from behind his cactus and rolled behind another rock about ten yards back. His movement distracted the men long enough to give Bass and Charlie a chance to gain the upper hand. Charlie shot two of them in the leg and another in the chest. Bass caught one in the shoulder and another straight in the head. When their friends started hitting the ground, the other two guys ran back towards their tents, leaving their injured friends behind.

With the gunfire finished, the silence of the desert rang loudly all around them. The children that they had seen earlier weren't even making noise. Charlie chanced a look around the boulder, finding nothing but the dead and injured men laying between them and the silent camp. "Maybe we should get out of here while we can," she suggested.

Looking out as well, Bass shook his head. "To risky, they might follow us."

Miles and Jeremy were also peeking out from behind their respective covers, both of them shrugging their shoulders in confusion. "Did they surrender?" Jeremy called out to them. They shrugged back.

Charlie tugged on Bass' sleeve to make him look at her. "If we take their horses, they won't be able to follow." She could see him mulling it over in his mind, he looked between the small tent town and the horses tethered nearby with a small amount of guilt on his face. "If we take the horses we might be able to catch up with Conner," she persisted. And that did it, the guilt slipped from his face and his jaw clenched in anger.

"Come on, let's go get 'em."

They moved out from behind the boulder cautiously, waiting to see if there would be another attack. When none came, they waved for Miles and Jeremy to follow and moved quickly and quietly to where the horses were tethered. There were six horses, and every single one was shaking with fright from the loud gunshots. Charlie patted a dark mahogany one, almost black, on the nose and smoothed her other hand down its neck.

"Shh, it's alright. I'm not gonna hurt you." Barely, but enough for her to notice, the horse settled down. The horses weren't saddled, but luckily the people that owned them weren't very bright. They had left all of the saddles in a pile nearby.

All set and ready to go, they untied the remaining two horses and sent them off running. The horses would come back of course, but it would give them enough time to get well out of range before their owners decided to chase after them. The group set off at a quick pace back towards the wagon tracks that would lead them to Conner, giving the tents and the wounded a wide berth.

The wagon tracks were obvious enough that Charlie didn't need to be at the head of the line to lead them, so she hung back and let Jeremy and Bass move ahead. After a while, Miles trotted up next to her on his horse. Their horses fell in step next to each other and the two of them rode along in an easy silence for a several minutes. The adrenaline rush had completely died down already and now Charlie was ready for a nap.

"Are you planning on telling me what you and Jer are lying about anytime soon?" His question shocked her from her half asleep riding.

"Huh?" She tired her best to feign innocence but then she remembered that it was Miles, he knew what Matheson women looked like when they lied. Sighing, Charlie shook her head. "It's probably better, for now at least, that you don't know. I don't want to put you in a bad spot."

"Like I'm not already? Bass blames me for Conner leaving in the first place. If he hadn't left, he wouldn't have been taken."

"He doesn't blame you."

"Yes, he does. That's exactly what he told me."

Charlie gave him a disbelieving look. "That's what he _says_ , but that's not what he actually thinks. You're supposed to be his best friend, how do you not know this?"

Miles rolled his eyes at her with a huff. "OK, since you're the new Bass expert, tell me what he really thinks."

Pulling her horse to a stop, Charlie glared over at her uncle. "He thinks that this is his fault. You know how he is Miles, he blames himself for every little thing but he covers it up by either blaming someone else or acting like he doesn't care."

Miles picked awkwardly at a hole in his jeans for a second, his jaw working back and forth like he was debating what to say next. "But it _was_ my fault this time."

"No, it wasn't." Charlie said firmly. "Leaving was Conner's choice, no one made him go. And we don't know that he wouldn't have been taken anyway. For all we know, a week from now he could have been picked up and hauled off, and then we would still be in this same mess." But Miles still didn't look releaved of his guilt. "If it really bothers you that much, why don't you just tell Bass you're sorry?" His face went from guilty to shocked in a heartbeat.

"Apologize? Me? I didn't even do anything wrong."

"Exactly," Charlie told him with a satisfied smile. "You didn't do anything wrong, so you have no reason to feel guilty."

Realizing that he'd just been played, Miles growled something like ' _smart ass_ ' and took off after the other two at a gallop. Charlie followed them slowly, hoping that lying to Miles _and_ Bass wouldn't blow up in her face.


	4. Chapter 4

Conner was having a really good week. First, he'd run into his old friend Alejandro, and after that, things had only gotten better. He laid back against some pillows in the back of the wagon with his feet propped up on the side. It had been so long since he'd been allowed to just relax that he hadn't done a single thing all week. Even better was that the guys didn't even try to make him feel bad about it like his dad and Miles would have. Alejandro and his buddies seemed perfectly fine with letting him sit around while they did all the work. One of Alejandro's buddies, José, seemed to really enjoyed fetching his food.

With his feet still up and his eyes still closed, Conner spoke to the other guys in the wagon bed. "Hey, José, get me some water and a snack or something."

" _Sí, Señor._ " The sound of bags rustling could be heard and then a full canteen and a bag of dried jerky landed in his lap. "Is that all, _Señor_?"

Conner munched on a piece of jerky and shooed the little guy away without even saying thank you. He figured that now that he was going back to Mexico, there was no need for such pleasantries. Nunez would make sure that everyone knew who he was and there would be no question of his authority. He sighed happily at the thought, he couldn't wait to give orders to people that actually listened again. Miles and Charlie, even his dad, always seemed to think that they knew better than him. He huffed to himself. _I'll show them._

XxX

Bass was having a terrible week that was only getting progressively worse. They were only a day out from the Mexican border and they showed no signs of reaching Conner before he was dragged across the line. On top of that, not only was Charlie still lying to him about something, but now she was avoiding him too. He had tried to corner her as they were breaking camp this morning but she'd brushed him off and then went to have a secretive conversation with Jeremy.

Charlie's relationship with Jeremy continued to confuse him. They had been good friends from the moment he had joined their little group, but lately it seemed like they were more than that. They were always close to each other, whispering and talking, and sometimes laughing. Bass would catch them looking at each other with these deep, intense stares. And then the other day, when he'd woken up to find them cuddled together.

He sighed sadly to himself.

The answer was pretty obvious when you put it all together like that. Charlie and Jeremy were clearly together. He had missed his chance.

"Bass, you ready to go?" Jeremy stood just out of sight on his bad side where his blind spot was, which of course didn't help his attitude towards the other man.

"Yeah, I'm coming." He grabbed his bag and stood, ignoring Jeremy as he walked to where their horses were tethered. Miles and Charlie were already saddled and ready to go.

"Is everything alright?" Jeremy asked uncertainly.

"I'm fine." He ignored everyone's concerned faces as he rode off, wanting nothing more than to get away from the happy couple and find his son.

XxX

The four of them stood side by side as they looked out at the Arizona/Mexico border. There were men stationed at regular intervals all along the 'wall' that they had constructed. The wall was just fence posts every ten or so feet with a single line of barbed wire strung through it. The only structure around was the small shack that they assumed must be for the border workers to take a break and get out of the sun in.

"Well this sucks," Miles said flatly.

It was nearing the end of the day, and luckily the patrols were to preoccupied with the crowd at the 'gate' to pay them any attention otherwise they would have noticed the four people watching their routine intently.

"OK, the only way in I can see is we cause some kind of diversion and then run across when nobody's looking." The boys all turned to look at Charlie with varying degrees of disappointment.

"I've seen you infiltrate a mob den with nothing but a sleazy dress and my belt. Is that seriously the best you've got?" Jeremy asked.

"Why does it always have to be my job to figure this shit out? Maybe one of you should come up with the plan for a change."When the boys were all silent, Charlie said, "you two have been to Mexico before. How did you get in when you went to get Conner the first time?" Miles made a pained sort of face while Bass simply glowered at the fence preventing him from rescuing his son.

"Well?" Charlie asked again.

"Your mom got us in," Miles mumbled.

"My _mom_ ," Charlie laughed. "What did she do, beat them at Scrabble?" But Miles didn't laugh at her joke, he merely joined Bass' silent hatred of the fence. "Seriously, what did she do Miles?"

He took a deep breath and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "She may have... offered them some... stuff."

It took a moment for his words to sink in but when they did, Charlie burst out laughing. "Wait a sec," she huffed, getting her breathing under control. "My mother offered herself up as a prostitute just so she could get you guys across the border, so that Bass could find his son?" She laughed again. "I guess I was wrong, maybe she really did love you, Miles."

Miles frowned down at her, his eyes suddenly serious. "I told you, Charlie, me and your mom... it was complicated."

She rolled her eyes at him, not wanting to have that conversation again. "Whatever, let's just get this over with.

They left their horses tethered loosely to a tree just in case they didn't come back and followed Charlie as she sauntered towards the group of people huddled around the gate. With her hips swinging and her tank top pulled down low, she had every man's attention before she even made it to the gate master.

The man's loud voice sounded easily above the others. "Well hello, beautiful. You lookin' to take a trip to Mexico?" His southern accent seemed a little out of place when surrounded by so many Mexicans.

Charlie leaned against a fence post, making sure to showcase her tits spilling out of her shirt, and gave the man a big smile. "Yeah, I thought it sounded like fun. You know, go to the beach, maybe get a tan." She dropped her voice to a husky whisper. "Have a late night swim."

The man's eyes raked over her chest greedily and he grinned down at her. "Sounds like fun, but unfortunately, I can't let people through the gate without papers."

Charlie leaned close to him so that her lips were near his ear. "Oh, come on. Can't you bend the rules, just this once?" She bit her lip and rested her hand on his chest. "Please?"

He took a deep, unsteady breath, clearly affected by Charlie's presence. "I might be able to work something out, but what's in it for me?"

Grinning misheviously, Charlie stood on her tip toes and whispered in his ear. "Why don't you let me show you?"

"Well, alrighty then." He wrapped an arm around Charlie's waist and slapped her ass before pulling her towards the little shack. "Hey Miguel, keep an eye on everything, I'm takin' a break."

The boys all watched Charlie let herself get dragged into the shack. Miles looked about ready to follow until she turned back and gave them a quick wink before disappearing inside.

"I don't like this," Miles said.

"Me either," Bass agreed.

"Don't worry, guys. Charlie's been in worse situations, she'll be fine," Jeremy said.

Bass turned to him with an angry scowl. "You seem pretty calm for a guy whose girl just walked off with some douch bag."

"What?" And Jeremy looked truly shocked by his words. "What the hell are you talking about?"

But Bass misinterpreted his shock for trying to cover up the truth. "I'm not stupid, Baker, I've seen you with her!"

Jeremy stared at him, then looked at Miles to see if he had any idea what was going on, but Miles just shrugged helplessly. "Bass, I really have no idea what you're talking about," he said slowly. "Charlie and I aren't together."

Bass stopped for a moment, his mind replaying the images of Jeremy and Charlie together while he tried to figure out if he'd been wrong. "But... you guys were..."

"Bass, look at me," Jeremy said. When he did, all Bass saw was one of his best friends telling him the truth. "Me and Charlie are friends, that's all. I swear."

Now feeling extremely stupid and childish, Bass turned away from the other two, trying to hide his embarrassment. "I wouldn't do that to you, man. We're friends, remember?"

"I know that, I just..." Bass trailed off, having no idea how to explain the emotions running through him at the moment.

"You just turn into a jealous psycho sometimes," Miles huffed. "We _know_ , we're used to it."

Bass' eyes went wide. "I'm not jealous. What - why would I be jealous?"

Miles groaned up at the sky. "Oh my God, you're kidding right? We're not blind, Bass. We all know that you like her."

"No I don't," he said automatically. Though even he wouldn't have believed himself at that point. "Wait, what do you mean ' _we_ ', who else knows?"

Jeremy and Miles both looked very uncomfortable all of a sudden, but they were luckily saved by Charlie reappearing from inside the shack. She stumbled out with her hair tousled and readjusting her belt.

"Hey, Miguel," she called out in a sing song voice. "Luke told me to give you these." She handed him a stack of papers then leaned in close to whisper, "he said to tell you he might be a while." She gave the guy a wink and sauntered back over to the boys to collect her things. They gathered up the horses and met Miguel back at the gate.

He took one look at her stack of papers, shrugged, and let the four of them pass through. " _Bienvenido a México._ "

The four of them lead the horses about a hundred yards on foot before Charlie hopped onto her horse with a new sense of urgency. "We should go, like, now you guys."

"Why, what's wrong?" Miles asked.

"Well, I doubt it'll take them long to find their boss tied up and gagged, so we should get the hell out of here before they come after us."

Miles grinned. "That's my girl." They all jumped onto their horses and followed her away from the border with giant smiles on their faces.

XxX

There was a small town not too far from the border but Miles had suggested that they pass it because it most likely would have been the first place that the border people would look for them. About an hour later, they'd found themselves on the outskirts of a small farming community. It was the middle of the night so obviously no one was up to see them, but Charlie still felt a little guilty as she laid down on a bail of hay in one of the unused barns.

There was no question that a fire wasn't an option so they all soothed their stomachs with jerky and stale bread. After they settled the horses in their own stalls, Miles climbed up into the hay loft to keep watch while the rest of them got ready for bed. Jeremy went all the way down to the end of the line of stalls and disappeared, leaving Bass and Charlie by themselves.

Bass fiddled with the zipper on his jacket awkwardly. "You did a... good job back there. You know, getting us across the border."

She tilted her head and gave him a strange, little smile. "Thanks, I guess."

They both stood silently for a moment while waiting for Bass to work up the courage to say what he needed to say. "I - uh..." He sighed and then patted her shoulder. "Good night, Charlie."

Smiling softly, she squeezed his hand and turned into one of the other stalls. "Night, Bass."

As the stall door slid closed behind her, Bass mentally - and almost physically - kicked himself. All he had to do was say it. _Why didn't he just say it?_ He skipped the stall right next to hers in order to give her some space and was sliding his own door closed when he heard Jeremy sneeze.

" _Fail_."

Well, if you could call that a sneeze.

XxX

Bass woke them all up well before dawn. They needed to be out of the barn and on their way before the farmers started their day. Miles and Jeremy had gone out to see if the could get some water from a well that they had spotted while keeping watch through the night, leaving Bass alone with Charlie to get the horses ready.

He was starting to suspect that they were doing that on purpose.

She was deep in thought as she saddled her horse, her brow creased in concentration as she went through the movements. Bass watched her out of the corner of his eye, waiting for a good chance to ease himself into her internal conversation.

"Hey, Charlie."

She kept her eyes on the horse. "Mhmm."

"I just wanted to say-"

But he froze as the barrel of a shotgun came poking around the door of the stall they were standing in.

"Down!" There wasn't any time to reach for Charlie and try to protect her, he just had to hope that she heard him and actually listened to what he'd said. The blast rang out in the old barn, making the horses buck and squeal. Bass lifted his head a little to see a pair of dirty, old boots coming his way. He pushed himself to his feet but stayed low as he reached for his gun. Charlie was a few feet away, but laying on her back and clearly preparing to kick the person's feet out from under them. She kicked him hard in the side of the knee and he fell to the ground with a wail of pain. Bass moved to grab the gun out of his hand but was stopped by the five other guys that came rushing in with swords and guns drawn.

" _Levanta las manos!_ "

Bass stopped for a second. "What?"

The man closest to him thrust the barrel of his shotgun in his face. " _Levanta las manos!_ " Two more men joined him while the other two were pulling Charlie roughly to her feet.

"Don't touch her." Bass growled, but the men ignored him and started tying her hands behind her back. Surprisingly, Charlie seemed to have nothing to say, nor did she attempt to fight back when they pushed her face against the wall and started taking her weapons. "I said, don't touch her."

The man in front of him poked him hard in the chest with his gun. " _Cállate._ " Then his two friends started tying him up too.

"Get the hell off me." Bass tried to get away, but one of them grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head back so hard that his eyes watered. They slammed him against the wall next to Charlie and stripped him of his weapons before leading the both of them out of the barn.

"Charlie, are you OK?" Even though she looked perfectly fine, minus the whole hands-tied-behind-her-back thing, he still had to ask.

The group's little leader whacked him on the side of the head. " _Cállate._ "

Bass huffed and tried to turn so he could yell at him. "I don't speak Spanish! Do you hear me? No understand-o you-o. Speak English." The leader muttered something in Spanish and grabbed him by the hair, ignoring his protests as he drug him down the street.

The farmers led them to a small building in the center of town. There weren't any people out on the streets seeing as how early it was, but as they passed by some of the houses Bass saw a few faces peering out from the windows. He and Charlie were taken into the building and shoved unceremoniously into a tiny room, they heard the lock click closed behind them.

"Well isn't this freakin' fantastic. You were really helpful back there Charlie, I could tell that you were really putting up a good fight."

Charlie perched herself on the single crate in the room and gave him an amused look. "Relax, I'm sure Miles and Jeremy are already on their way to rescue us."

"We don't have time for another rescue. For all we know, Conner could already be dead. We can't afford to waste anymore time."

"Alright, alright," she sighed, hopping down from her crate and swinging her arms. "Let's get out of here and go find your brat."

Bass smiled at her, but it quickly turned into a frown. "Wait, how did you get untied?"

Charlie smirked over at him as she dug her fingers into her mass of blonde curls. "Figure it out yourself, I can't do all the work around here." Pulling some pins from her hair, she left him to his ropes while she started to pick the lock on the door.

Getting out of the ropes bound around his wrists turned out to be pretty easy. The guys that had tied them hadn't done a very good job. He was ready to go before Charlie had made any progress with the lock.

"Here, let me do it," he said, reaching for the pins in her hands.

She snatched her hands away from him. "I've got it, just give me a sec."

Bass watched her insert the pins back into the lock and fiddle around trying to get the door open. "You're being to rough. Ease up a little, you have to be gentle."

"Shut up, I've got this."

He watched her for a few more seconds. "Clocks ticking," he sing songed at her.

Charlie sent him a scathing look. "It would be easier if you weren't distracting me." She glared at him and then went back to trying to pick the lock, but Bass was having way too much fun now. He stepped behind her so his chest was brushing against her back.

"Come on, Charlie, you're a trained soldier. You can't let distractions get the best of you." Her only response to that was to growl in the back of her throat and jerk the pins so hard that one of them snapped in half. She tossed the broken one to the ground and reached into her hair to pull out a replacement.

"See? I told you, you were being too rough." But she ignored him and shoved the pins back into the lock. Bass leaned farther over her shoulder, resting his chin on the curve of her neck and placing his hands on the door in front of them, trapping her between his arms.

"You know Charlie," he said softly in her ear. "You're good at a lot of things. Hunting, fighting, killing. But lock picking? It's just not your thing."

Sighing in defeat, Charlie started to move away from the door to give him room, but Bass held her where she was. Pressing himself flush against her back, he took the pins from her hands and started to work the lock while he spoke quietly in her ear.

"Some locks can be really complicated. They can be frustrating and stubborn. They don't want to give into you and let you see what's inside. But I've learned to be patient... I take my time and let her get comfortable, and then... Click." And as he said it, they both heard the lock click open. Charlie turned her head so that their noses were touching and their lips were only a breath apart. "See? All I have to do is be patient and she'll come to me."

Their eyes locked, and whether knowingly or not, Charlie licked her lips. Bass thought for sure that she was going to kiss him but then-

" _Showoff_." She breathed the word against his lips and pushed herself away from him. Stumbling a bit, Bass stepped back to look at her smirking face. "Can we go now?" She asked.

It took everything in him not to groan out loud but he managed it. Instead, he turned the handle and pulled the door of their little prison cell open, startling the one guy that had been left to watch them. Charlie lunged forward and grabbed the rifle right out of his hands, then whacked him on the head with it. The poor guy slumped forward, unconscious, so Bass caught him and drug him into the room.

Charlie handed him the rifle and took the guy's knife for herself. "Now can we leave?"

Chuckling, Bass held the door open for her. "Ladies first."

* * *

A/N For the record, I don't speak Spanish. Any of it that was in this chapter was just stuff that I remember from when I took it in high school. If it's wrong or doesn't make sense, I apologize to anyone that actually can speak Spanish. :-D

Levanta las manos - Put your hands up!

Bienvenido a México - Welcome to Mexico

Cállate - Shut up! (pretty sure I drove my family crazy when I learned that one)


	5. Chapter 5

A/N So remember back in the first chapter when I warned that this story would most likely contain smut? Well, I was right (I know it's totally shocking.) Enjoy!

* * *

They were approaching the gates of Nunez's hometown, and Conner couldn't help but smile happily. He was so hungry and tired of eating dried jerky. He couldn't wait to get back to the compound and eat some real food. Alejandro steered them through the open gates and down the main road towards home. They passed Ricardo's bar and Conner spotted Maya, Ricardo's beautiful daughter with long dark hair, out front sweeping off the front porch. She noticed him watching her and he smiled but all she did was raise her eyebrows as if she were surprised to see him.

"Hey, Alejandero, we should stop and grab something to eat at Ricardo's."

Alejandero didn't even take his eyes off of the road. "We can't. The boss said to bring you straight home."

"Come on, I doubt Luis will care if we stop for some food." Conner leaned around the side of the wagon to get another look at Maya. She was watching the wagon pull away from the bar with her father who was looking at him and shaking his head.

"You can wait five more minutes, Conner. I bet the boss just wants you back so he can be the first one to welcome you home, then you can go out and do whatever you want."

Turning away from Maya and her father, Conner smiled. Nunez was welcoming him home. This day couldn't possibly get any better.

The gates around the compound opened as they apprached. All of the men that usually protected the wall around the house had even come out to welcome him back. Conner waved to some of his old friends as they went by but he stopped when Nunez himself stepped out onto the front porch of the mansion and waved at him. Conner jumped down from the wagon bench and apprached his former boss with a grin.

"Señor, it's so good to see you."

Nunez smiled and held his arms out wide as if for a hug and Conner mimicked him as he got closer. When he got about ten feet from him, Conner thought that his smile seemed much less like a smile from close up.

"Cuff him," Nunez barked.

Before Conner had really even comprehended what he'd said, there were handcuffs around both of his wrists.

"Hey, what the hell! What's going on?"

Nunez shook his head amusedly and came closer. "Did you really think that you could betray me and then walk right back in here, to my home, like it never happened?"

Conner gaped at him, completely stunned.

"Pathetic fool. You never were very bright." He turned to Alejandro who was still in the wagon. "You, take him downstairs and out of my sight. Lock him in one of the cells."

Alejandero jumped down immediately and grabbed the chain attached to Conner's handcuffs. "But, Señor," he said timidly, "I thought that we were going to kill him on the spot."

"WHAT?" Conner interrupted, fighting against his restraints. "You knew about this?" He shouted at Alejandro.

"Silence!" Nunez yelled at him, then turned back to Alejandro. "Don't worry, he will die. But we must throw a party in his honor first. We can behead him as an opening for the feast."

Alejandro nodded happily and started dragging Conner towards the house. "No, you can't do this," he shouted, but no one listened to him. Apparenty, no one in Mexico gave a damn about him.

Maybe he should of just stuck with his dad after all.

XxX

As they got closer to the town where Nunez lived, Charlie could sense Bass' worry grow. Despite the fact that she planned to kill Conner herself, or at least break a bone, she found herself worrying too. Were they too late? Was Conner already dead?

They rode into town slowly as the late afternoon sun started to set. The streets seemed strangely empty for such a large town.

"Where is everyone?" Jeremy asked. Though everyone else merely shrugged their shoulders.

Suddenly, a young woman with long, dark hair appeared on the front porch of a house not far away and waved them over. "I take it you _gringos_ aren't from around here," she said with a smile.

Charlie shook her head. "No, we're just in town looking for someone."

A man, seemingly the girl's father, stepped out onto the porch behind her. "Why don't you come in and have a drink, and we will see if we can help you."

The four of them dismounted and tied the horses to the fence out front before following the girl inside. The first floor of the house had been transformed into a lounge area, complete with cozy chairs, dining tables, and an old pool table. The only thing that seemed out of place was the fact that the bar was empty.

As the man disappeared into the back to get them some drinks, Charlie asked, "Where is everyone?"

The girl shrugged. "Nunez is throwing a big party tonight. Everyone was invited and he runs this town, so no one was about to turn down the invitation."

Her father came back into the room with some glasses and a bottle of whiskey. Miles looked at the two of them carefully. "Then why aren't you guys at the party?"

The man huffed angrily, though it didn't seem directed at them. "Because Luis can make all of the demands he wants, I still do not take orders from him."

The girl rolled her eyes as her father disappeared into the back again. "You will have to forgive my father. He and Nunez were friends as children and my father has never forgiven him for what he has become."

"As I shouldn't." Her father came back with a bowl of tortilla chips. "Luis has disgraced himself with what he's done."

"What do you mean?" Charlie asked interestedly.

The man opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself and turned back to his daughter. "Maya, why don't you go cook up some food for our guests."

"But, Papa-"

"No. I said go. Now." She glared at him, but stomped off towards the back. The man turned to make sure that she was gone before addressing them again.

"You must forgive me. For many years it has been all I can do to keep my daughter safe from Luis' business. But where are my manners, my name is Ricardo. And who are you?"

Charlie spoke up without hesitation. "I'm Sarah and this is my dad, Michael, and his friends Bob and Jacob." Bass shot her a look at being named 'Bob', but didn't comment.

Ricardo nodded to all of them. "It is a pleasure to meet you all. Now you said you are here looking for someone?"

"Yeah," Miles leaned forward and took a sip of his drink. "We're looking for a young guy, probably got into town recently, his name is Conner."

Ricardo's eyebrows shot up. "And why are you looking for him, exactly?" Behind him, Charlie could see Maya's head poking around the corner.

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Jeremy started.

"I see. But I am afraid you have come all this way for nothing," Ricardo said.

"What do you mean?" Bass asked quickly.

"You are correct, the Bennett boy came though here early this morning. But I would honestly be shocked if he was still alive."

Bass visibly paled, but luckily Maya drew her father's attention as she stormed into the room. "Don't talk that way Papa!"

He turned towards her angrily. "Silence, Maya! Go back to the kitchen." Charlie watched her flee back into the kitchen wondering why the girl seemed so invested in Conner.

Ricardo shook his head sadly. "Forgive me, but my daughter does not understand that that boy will do her no good. He is known by many for his brutality. There is a reason that Luis made him his second in command, and it certainly had nothing to do with intelligence. The boy lacks in that department."

"Wait, so your daughter and Conner were a couple?" Charlie asked.

"Of course not." He answered quickly. "Though the boy did seem to take quite an interest in her. I had to chase him out of my bar many times when I discovered him following after her."

"Why did you chase him away?" Miles asked.

"Because, Conner Bennett is a monster who works for an even bigger monster. Before he deserted Luis, his job was to collect the taxes around town. He would go around to every home and shop, and take the people's hard earned money. And if they didn't have money to pay with, they paid some other way. Those with children suffered the most. Daughters, girls as young as twelve, we're taken to the mansion to be servants. And everyone knows that those girls are expected to do much more than clean."

Charlie stared at him in shock. Sure, Conner was a pig, but she had never thought that he would force a child to have sex with him.

Ricardo noticed the disgusted look on her face and nodded sadly. "I have nearly run this bar broke in an attempt to keep my daughter away from them. I pay my taxes, and Maya stays safe. She knows nothing of it. I refuse to tell her, though I've been tempted many times when I caught her sneaking around with Bennett."

"So, do you really think that Conner's dead?" Bass asked quietly.

"I would think so. Luis was furious when he left. He has had people out looking for him ever since." Ricardo gave them a strange look. "But why are you searching for him?"

Making a quick decision, Charlie answered for them. "Well, I met Conner a few months ago and we... we were kinda together for a while." She did her best to look like a heartbroken, love-sick girl. "But then he... I woke up one day and he was gone. He stole my life savings." She ducked her head like she was trying to hide tears though she was actually trying to hide a smile.

Ricardo clicked his tongue and patted her hand gently. "There, there, no need to cry over him. He's not worth it."

Catching on to Charlie's game, Jeremy spoke up. "We've tracked him all this way hoping that we might be able to get her money back. Are you sure that Nunez would have killed him already?"

"I suppose it is possible that he is still alive, though I wouldn't get your hopes up of getting your money back." Maya came bustling out of the kitchen with a tray of bowls filled with delicious smelling onion soup as Ricardo rose from the table. "Plus, there is no way for you to get to him now. I am sorry that you have come all this way." He turned to his daughter with a smile. "But eat! My daughter is the best cook I have ever seen, and then you all shall rest. We have plenty of rooms upstairs for you to stay in."

Maya set the tray down on the table as her father left the room, motioning for her to follow. "Come, Maya. Let our guests eat."

She turned and watched her father disappear into the back before turning back to them and speaking quietly. "My father does not know this, please do not tell him." She said hurriedly.

"We won't," Charlie assured her.

"I have a friend, Claudia, she has worked in the mansion since we were little girls. She sometimes sneaks out to see me. Before you arrived, she came to warn me that Conner will be killed tomorrow." Maya's face turned sad as she looked at Charlie. "I am sorry for what he did to you, but despite what my father thinks, he was always kind to me. He told me that one day, we would leave this town and be together." She looked down at her hands sadly. "Claudia came to warn me because she said that she might be able to get me into the compound so I can see him. So I can say goodbye."

Charlie watched a single tear trickle down Maya's cheek and suddenly found herself sympathizing with her. No matter how much Conner annoyed her, this girl clearly felt something for him, and she couldn't help but wonder if maybe he really felt something for her too.

"So wait, Conner isn't dead?" Bass asked.

Maya shook her head. "No. Claudia said that Nunez plans to behead him at the start of the homecoming feast tomorrow night."

"Maya!" Ricardo's head appeared around the corner. "I told you to leave them be. Come, you have chores to do."

"Coming, Papa." She shot them all a tight smile and took off after her father.

They all sat in silence for a few minutes, Charlie passing the bowls of soup around the table.

"Well, at least we know he's alive," Jeremy said.

"Yeah, but we only have a day to get him out of there." Miles shook his head, taking another drink of whiskey. "That place has some serious security, we'll never be able to get in and out in time."

Bass glared over at him. "Oh, so we should just leave him?"

"That's not what I said."

"But it's what you meant."

Charlie held both hands up in the air. "Alright, enough. We don't have time to fight with each other. We need to figure out how we're going to get Conner out alive and save all of those little girls."

Bass, Miles, and Jeremy all gave her incredulous looks.

"What? We can't just leave a bunch of children to be sex slaves! "

Miles shook his head at her. "Charlie, there's no way we can take on all of Nunez's guys. Plus, he's seen me and Bass before, we probably won't even be able to get in there, so you and Jeremy might have to go alone."

"We can't just leave them," she shouted.

Bass turned to her with wide eyes, as if he couldn't believe what she was saying. "We have to get Conner out of there now. We can't afford to mess this up by trying to help everyone."

Charlie shook her head at him in disbelief. "How can you say that? You want to leave those innocent little girls to a life of slavery, just to save Conner, who helped put them there! You are unbelievable. You don't care about anyone but yourself."

The boys watched Charlie stomp off in the direction of the kitchen, Bass rising from his chair to stop her, but Miles pulled him back. "Just give her a couple minutes to cool down."

Jeremy picked sadly at his food. "She's got a point though. I mean, I can't believe that Conner was abusing those kids like that."

Miles looked into his glass thoughtfully. "Maybe he did bring them back as a payment, but I have a hard time believing that Conner would have actually abused them himself. Don't get me wrong, the kid's an asshole, but I just can't see him as a child molester."

Bass, who was only partially listening to them to begin with, got up quickly from the table and headed towards the kitchen. Charlie thought that he only cared about himself. If only she knew how far from the truth that was... Maybe it was about time he told her.

"Hey, where are you going?" Miles called after him.

"To tell her the truth," was his quiet reply. Miles and Jeremy stared after him, Miles taking a long sip of his drink.

"Soo..." Jeremy smirked over at him. "I give it twenty minutes and they're both naked."

Miles closed his eyes and shook his head with a groan. "OK, betting on Conner's sex life is one thing, but can we not guess how long it will take for my best friend to take off my niece's clothes. Please?"

XxX

Maya showed him upstairs to the rooms that she had gotten ready for them and pointed towards the door at the end of the hall with a knowing smile. "Good luck." He waited until she'd slipped away before approaching the door.

Why were his hands so sweaty? And his heart was beating so hard he could feel it in his chest. Taking a deep, calming breath, Bass knocked on the door to Charlie's room.

No answer.

"Charlie... I'm sorry. I just... Can you let me explain, please?"

No answer.

"Come on, Charlie. Just let me in."

Her muffled voice floated through the door. "You can explain from there."

Sighing, he dropped his forehead against the door with a loud thud. "Please?" He asked quietly.

Silence.

Then the door opened so suddenly that he nearly fell down on top of her. She glared at him as he righted himself quickly. She clearly wasn't going to make this easy for him. Closing the door behind him, Bass stepped hesitantly into her room while she perched herself on the windowsill on the far side of the room.

"I know that you're upset with me, but it really isn't what you think, Charlie." She raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth angrily, but he rushed on. "Of course I want to help those girls. No one should ever have to live like that. But the reality is that we don't have the man power to take Nunez down. We'll be lucky if we can even get Conner out alive."

She stood up and waved her arms around angrily. "So you don't even want to try? All you care about is getting your son back and then your just gonna leave them there."

"No, I'm not," Bass said loudly, drowning out her voice. "I'm gonna get Conner back, and then we're going to gather up some guys and take Nunez out."

Charlie stared at him doubtfully. "Really?"

Taking his chance, Bass moved closer to her, taking her hand in his. "Yes. The only way this town will ever be safe is if we get rid of him. But in order to do that, we're gonna need some help. Ricardo seems to hate him, so I'm sure there are others. It's just a matter of bringing them all together."

Charlie looked up at him and smiled softly, her eyes full of trust. This was it. Time to tell her that her cared about so much more than just himself.

"Charlie... It's not just about Conner. It's about my family. I would do this for any of you, not just him." He stepped closer again so their bodies were only inches apart.

"Even me?" She asked.

Bass brought his hands up to her face and cupped her cheeks. "I would tear apart every single man in that house for you, Charlie. You know that."

"Sometimes it's hard to tell with you."

Leaning his forehead against hers, Bass whispered, "I would do anything for you, because... I love you." Her face lit up instantly as they looked at each other. Bass smiled back, infected by the happiness she was emitting.

"Bass?" She asked quietly.

"Mhmm?"

"Are you gonna kiss me now, or are you just gonna stand there grinning like an idiot?"

He barked out a laugh and lowered his lips to hers. "I'm not an idiot."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, "yeah, you are," before sealing her lips over his. Bass wrapped his arms around her, enjoying finally having her pressed up against him after years of waiting. He kissed her slowly, having absolutely no desire to rush it. Running his hands down her back and over her hips and gently sliding his tongue over her bottom lip. Charlie sighed and parted her lips, letting him slide through with a soft moan. The sound was like music to his ears and Bass suddenly found himself dying to hear it again. He kissed her with more force, pushing her back against the wall next to the window. She moved her hands to his shoulders, pulling him closer, and then to his chest where she started undoing the buttons of his shirt. Bass slowed the kiss and grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"We should go slow," he told her, panting slightly.

"No way." She shook her head. "I don't want you chickening out on me again."

"I never chickened out of anything," he said defensively.

But she just rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the front of his jacket, pulling him close again and kissing him with everything she had. Bass gave into her demands and shrugged out of his jacket while she did away with his shirt buttons. She pushed the shirt over his shoulders and let it drop to the floor, her hands roving over his toned chest and down his stomach towards his belt buckle. Unsatisfied with the amount of clothes she was still wearing, Bass grabbed the hem of her tank top and yanked it up over her head. He trailed his lips down the side of her neck and his hands up her sides, brushing his fingertips beneath her bra covered breasts. Just as he was preparing to take them in his hands, Charlie pushed him away with a mischievous smile.

She moved away from him and started backing herself towards the bed, her eyes glued to his as she unsnapped her jeans and shimmied out of them, sending her panties to the floor with them. The back of her knees hit the bed and she stopped, reaching behind her to undo the clasp of her bra before dropping it as well.

Bass stood still by the window staring at her perfection. Lush lips quirked in a little smirk, rosy nipples, hardened on perfect, full breasts. The dusting of dark blonde hair between her toned thighs was calling his name. She drew his attention back to her face with a single finger pulling him in. Realizing that he was an idiot for still being all the way over by the window, Bass moved quickly to her and knocked her backwards on the bed, claiming her mouth in a hungry kiss with one hand supporting his weight and the other finally taking hold of one of her perky, little tits. Charlie arched into his hand, spreading her legs out beneath him so he could settle between them.

He wanted to devour her. To taste every inch of her creamy skin. Kissing a path down her neck, he found his way to her hardened nipple and sucked the tiny pebble into his mouth, reveling in the little noises she made. He didn't stay there long. His desire to taste her and mark her as his own was too much. He slipped a hand between her legs and pressed his fingers through her wet folds, finding her drenched and ready.

Charlie bucked her hips against him. "Why are you still wearing pants?"

He chuckled, unbuttoned them and sending them to the floor, then put his fingers in his mouth and sucked them clean of her juices with a groan. "Guess I can finish that later," he said as he settled back over her. Charlie didn't bother responding, instead reaching for his hard cock. He growled deep in his chest the moment her fingers wrapped around him and let her guide him home. Their eyes met as the head of his cock pierced her folds and he thrust into her hard and fast. She moaned loudly as he pulled out and slammed into her hot pussy again and again. Her hands raked over his shoulders and back looking for something to hold on to, her nails digging into his skin as he fucked her. Bass didn't hold back. He fucked her like he'd been dreaming of for years, fast and brutally hard. But she loved it. She wrapped her legs around him and held him close, begging him to go faster, to fuck harder.

Bass felt his balls start to tighten and cursed himself for not being able to hold out for just a little longer. He slid an arm under her back and held on to her shoulder to keep her in place while he fucked her and slid the other hand through her wiry curls to flick her swollen clit. She came hard, crying out his name, her walls clenching around his cock like a vice. He pulled out and gave himself a couple quick jerks, coming all over her stomach and thighs.

Collapsing down next to her, they laid together for a while catching their breath. Eventually, Charlie turned into him and rested her chin on his shoulder. Bass moved to wrap an arm around her and kissed the top of her head as she settled against his chest.

"See? I'm not a chicken."

Charlie snorted. "Right... And it only took you three and a half years." Bass mumbled something incoherent but Charlie ignored him, her thoughts having already moved on elsewhere.

"So you and Miles can't go into the compound?" She asked.

He blew out a long breath, thinking that it would have been nice to let the rest of this conversation wait until morning. "We can... but it would be dangerous. Nunez knows our faces. But I'm not gonna let that stop me. I'm going to get my son back."

Charlie pressed a gentle kiss just above his heart. "I don't want you to get hurt," she whispered.

"He's my son. I may not have a choice." He could tell that she didn't like it, but she didn't argue and it wasn't long before they were both fast asleep.

XxX

Bass woke up to the lovely feeling of having been completely satisfied. His droopy eyes drifted to the window, finding the sky still filled with nighttime stars. He reached out for the beautiful woman sharing his bed, but grabbed onto nothing but empty sheets. Sitting up quickly, he fumbled with the lamp on the beside table, throwing the room into a strange orange glow. Charlie was no where in sight and her clothes were gone.

"Damn it!"


	6. Chapter 6

Charlie rolled over in the bed and found herself facing Bass' back. Faded red marks ran up and down his back, crisscrossing over each other and making his flesh look like a patchwork quilt. She traced one of the deeper scars with the tip of her finger, feeling the raised and bumpy skin. Those marks were Nunez's not-so-polite 'fuck you' to Bass for even thinking that he might be a part of Conner's life. And now they were planning to go right back in to the same man again.

Bass' slow, deep breaths continued as sheI laid there. Her mind wouldn't let her drift off back to sleep. It was too worried about what might happen if she let Bass go back into the compound.

He may never come back out.

But she had literally just gotten him. After three and a half years of near torture, he had finally admitted that he loved her. She couldn't lose him now.

Decision made, Charlie rose slowly from the bed and dressed quickly by the light of the moon. She grabbed the door handle, but stopped. Slimey, slippery guilt was seeping into her stomach. She took a deep breath and looked back at the man she loved, his face gleaming in the moonlight.

"I'll be back. I promise," she whispered, then slipped out of the bedroom door.

XxX

Maya wasn't hard to find. She and her father lived in the small house next door to the bar. The two building were connected by a short hallway built between the kitchen in the back of the bar and the kitchen in their house. It took several minutes, but Charlie managed to pick the lock on the door and made her way quietly into the other house. She passed by a room on the first floor and heard loud snoring before making her way upstairs. Maya's bedroom door was cracked open with a little bit of light pouring out of it. Charlie slipped inside, finding the other girl sitting at a vanity brushing her hair.

Maya's eyes went wide when she saw her reflection in the mirror and her mouth opened as if to scream, but Charlie rushed over and slapped a hand over her mouth. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help," Charlie said low in her ear.

Maya stared at her for a moment before nodding slowly. Removing her hand from her mouth, Charlie stepped away to give her some space. "We don't have a lot of time," Charlie said quickly. "And I can't tell you everything, but we're not here hunting Conner. We're here to save him."

"You are?" She asked loudly, her smile spreading across her face.

"Shh!" Charlie checked the hallway to make sure it was empty then turned back to Maya. "But I need your help. Your friend Claudia, you said that she could sneak you in to see him. Do you think she can get me in instead?"

Maya's smile slipped. "I suppose she could, but..." She stood up and Charlie noticed what she was wearing. A silk, lavender dress that hung elegantly off of her shoulders and flowed down to her knees. Maya noticed Charlie looking at her and blushed.

"Conner bought this for me as a gift," she said with a sad smile. "He was planning to take me on a real date, but I told him that I'd didn't have anything to wear. The next morning, I found this in a box on the front porch. But I never got to wear it. He deserted Nunez and left before we had the chance to go out."

Pity wracked at Charlie's heart. "You look beautiful, Maya."

"Really? I was worried that he might not like it." She scrutinized her reflection in the mirror and ran a hand through her long hair.

For a moment, Charlie was tempted to tell her that Conner liked anything with legs, but the sincerity radiating from Maya made it impossible. She decided that changing the subject was probably a better way to go.

"In order for me to save him, I have to get into that mansion. Will you and Claudia help me?"

Maya sighed, but locked her jaw and turned towards her determinedly. "Yes, I will help. But both of us can not go. It would be too risky. You will have to meet Claudia yourself and she will lead you in."

"OK, just tell me where to go."

Maya tilted her head and looked her up and down. "You can not go dressed like that, you will need to blend in."

Charlie looked down at her dirty jeans and stained tank top. "This is all I have."

Smiling, Maya motioned for her to sit down in front of the mirror. "Don't worry, I'll figure something out."

XxX

Bass jumped down the stairs two at a time and burst into the downstairs of the bar. The dining room was empty, he must have missed her already. He ran to the front door, flung it open, and looked outside. There wasn't a single person wandering the street. "Crap."

He headed back through the bar towards the back stairs in order to wake up Miles, but was stopped by Maya standing in the kitchen holding a frying pan over her head. When she recognized who he was, she lowered the pan.

"I'm sorry, Señor. I thought someone was trying to break in."

"It's fine, I'm sorry I woke you." Still in a hurry, Bass moved past her towards the stairs again, but stopped short. "Wait a minute, what are you doing over here? I thought you and your dad lived next door. How did you hear me from all the way over there, and how did you get here so fast?"

Maya bit her lip awkwardly. "I am a light sleeper."

"Bullshit. Did you see Char- I mean Sarah. Did you see Sarah down here?" She looked away from him guiltily. "Maya, please. This is important."

Sighing in defeat, Maya slumped down into one of the kitchen chairs. "I'm sorry, but she asked me not to tell anyone. She said that she could save him on her own. She said that she had done it a thousands times, so she didn't need your help."

Bass felt his heart drop into his stomach. "Wait, she went to save Conner by herself?"

Maya nodded mutely.

Oh, boy. Things were about to get really complicated.

Bass ran back up the stairs three at a time with Maya at his heels. "I'm so sorry. I should have stopped her." But he just ignored her and burst through the door of Miles bedroom, freezing completely at the sight that met his eyes.

Miles was fast asleep on his back, one arm dangling off of the side of the bed with Jeremy curled up against his other side like a cat. His head was stuck in Miles' armpit and one of his arms was draped across his bare chest. Behind Bass, Maya started to giggle. Near laughter himself, Bass moved over to the bed and shook Miles' shoulders. His eyes snapped open and he sat straight up, looking down confusedly at the limp arm in his lap. Miles looked from the arm to Jeremy and back to the arm before bodily shoving the other man away from him.

"What the fuck, Jer!"

Jeremy's body hit the floor with a loud thump and he sat up quickly, his blonde hair sticking up in odd directions. He rubbed at his eyes like a child and asked, "wos goin' on?"

Miles jumped out of his bed angrily and stormed towards Jeremy clad only in his threadbare boxers, making Maya laugh even louder. "What are you doing in my bed?"

Jeremy looked around the room at Miles, Bass, and Maya, then shrugged. "I got cold."

Then Bass couldn't help it, he started laughing too. Miles waved his arms around angrily and glared at Jeremy. "Cold? We're in Mexico! It's like a hundred degrees outside!"

Jeremy blinked innocently up at him and mumbled, "I didn't mean too."

Miles growled at his childishness and turned to glare at Bass. "And what the hell do you want, it's the middle of the night." He caught sight of Maya and narrowed his eyes a little. "Bass, where's Charlie?" He asked calmly.

"That's why I woke you up. She's gone."

Jeremy jumped up, revealing his own threadbare tighty whities. "Gone, what do you mean gone?" He narrowed his eyes at Bass suspiciously. "What did you do to her now?"

"I - Nothing! I didn't do anything. Maya said that she's going into Nunez's compound to get Conner out by herself."

Miles sighed and ran a hand through his hair, grabbing his pants to yank them on just as Ricardo came running into the room with and old baseball bat. "What is going on here?" His eyes travelled around the room and landed on his daughter who was currently standing in a room with three strange men, two of which were only in their underwear. "Maya! What do you think you are doing?"

She ran to her father and pulled the bat from his hands in an attempt to stop him from hurting anyone. "Papa, Sarah has gone into Nunez's compound alone to find Conner."

"WHAT! _¿Está loca?_ "

Jeremy pulled a blanket from the bed and draped it over himself like a toga. "Is Sarah crazy? Why yes, yes she is."

Miles ignored Jeremy and turned to Bass. "We should get moving. The last time Charlie handled something like this on her own she nearly got herself killed during the exit. We need to be ready to help her get out once she's got Conner."

Ricardo looked around the room at the three strange men suspiciously. "What is going on here."

Bass laid a hand on his shoulder and directed his attention at him. "We're here to help you guys, but we can't do it without Conner. Sarah went in to rescue him. You and Maya need to lay low for a while, probably leave town, because once we get him out, Nunez is going to be pissed. You both need to be long gone before he comes looking for anyone that might have helped us."

"No, I will not leave my home like a coward."

"It's not forever," Miles assured him. "It's just until we can come up with a plan to get rid of Nunez for good. Then you can come back and your family can live in peace."

Ricardo looked around at all of them again, his face filled with confusion. "Who are you people?"

Still dressed in his toga, Jeremy patted Ricardo on the shoulder. "Believe it or not, we're the good guys."

XxX

Charlie shifted around in Maya's silk, lavender dress awkwardly. "OK, this definitely seemed like a better idea in my head."

Her guide, Claudia, turned and gave her a questioning look. _"¿Qué?"_

Rolling her eyes, Charlie muttered, "nevermind."

Maya's friend had seemed more than happy to help, though there was the problem of the language barrier. Claudia didn't speak English, and the only Spanish Charlie knew were the swear words she'd heard Conner mutter under his breath from time to time. Well, she assumed that they were swear words.

They had gone about a mile and a half from town and Charlie was starting to wonder where the hell they were going when Claudia suddenly veered off to the side into a steep ditch. She motioned for Charlie to follow and she did so, though rather reluctantly. Maya seemed so attached to the lavender dress that she would hate to mess it up. That, as well as the fact that heels weren't meant for climbing around in ditches.

"Where are we going?" Charlie whispered, even though she knew it was in vain.

Claudia merely shushed her with her hands and led the way forward towards a large, open tunnel. At the opening, Claudia picked up a lamp and lit it, keeping it mostly covered so they wouldn't draw attention. She pointed into the tunnel and waved for Charlie to follow. Reluctantly, she followed her guide into the unused sewage tunnel. It smelled awful, like twenty year old waste and filth left to rot.

Claudia led her through a maze of smelly tunnels, showing her the arrows that guided the way through on the way. Charlie made a mental note of each arrow, knowing that the return trip would have to be done without Claudia and a mostly likely complaining Conner. Deep down, she hoped for a complaining Conner instead of an injured one.

They climbed a ladder that was gross and sticky with stuff that she didn't want to think about. At the top, Claudia silently lifted a circular metal panel and slid out of the hole with Charlie just behind. They were standing in a three foot wide path with a large house on one side and a twelve foot hight fence on the other. Claudia replaced the metal circle over the hole and then pulled over a strange patch of grass that she covered it up with. Charlie tilted her head at it as the hole disappeared from view. She had never seen grass like that before.

Claudia then turned and went about ten feet along the house, stopping and crouching low by the foundation to pull open a small wooden door. They slid through it easily and dropped down silently onto a crate. They pulled the door shut and Claudia made Charlie help her move the crate away from the wall where the door was. Looking at it, you would never know that there was a door there unless someone showed you.

Claudia jerked her head towards the left and said, "Conner." She motioned for Charlie to follow her, but Charlie stopped her and shook her head. Claudia had already done more than she had the right to ask, Charlie didn't want her to get into trouble because of her.

"You go," Charlie whispered, pointing first at Claudia and then in the opposite direction that she had said Conner was. "I'll go alone." Then she pointed at herself and then towards Conner.

Claudia pursed her lips but nodded and took off down the hallway to the right. Charlie waited until she was out of sight, listening to the sounds of a serious party still going on upstairs. Moving silently, she went down the cramped hallways towards where she hoped Conner was waiting.

The mansion's basement was like a maze. There were hallways that led into other hallways that led to dead ends. Charlie stopped and checked every room that she passed but found no Conner, not even a guard to stop her from looking. Frustrated and a little lost, she made her way towards the noises of the party upstairs. If she couldn't find Conner on her own, she would just have someone take her to him.

XxX

Bass was tying his and Charlie's packs to the saddle on his horse while Miles and Jeremy got their crap together. They came out onto the front porch in a hurry with Ricardo just behind them. The bar owner was packing supplies into the family wagon for himself and his daughter.

"Ricardo, not to rush you or anything, but you and Maya need to get out of here, like right now." Bass told him.

"But I have to get-"

"There's no time. You guys will come back soon, just take the stuff that you can't live without."

Ricardo's shoulders slumped. "How do I know that I can trust you?"

Maya came out onto the porch behind him and boldly stepped up to her father. "You can Papa, because I do."

"Maya, you are just a girl. You know nothing."

"I am twenty, Papa! And I know more than you think."

Ricardo stared at his daughter in shock. "How dare you speak to me like this."

But Maya just shook her head at him. "No, Papa. I am not a child, you can not protect me forever." She turned to Bass. "We will go now. Your friend said that I could trust you."

He smiled. "She did?"

"Yes, she said you are a good man."

"And you believe her?" He couldn't help but ask.

Maya tilted her head and studied his face. "No one believes me when I tell them that Conner is a good man because they only see what is on the outside, but I have seen his heart and I know he is good. Your friend has seen your heart, so if she says you are good, then I believe her."

Ignoring the dumbstruck look on her father's face, Maya climbed into the drivers seat of the wagon. "Come, Papa. We must go."

He climbed silently into the seat beside her and sat down, but before she led the horses away, Maya turned to them again. "You should not go straight to the compound. Claudia will have taken your friend through the tunnels. Go two miles west of here until you come to a deep ditch, then follow it back east. It will take you to your friends."

Bass locked eyes with the young woman and nodded. "Don't worry, Maya. We'll get him back."

XxX

Conner sat back against the wall of his prison cell. If it weren't for the fact that he was going to be beheaded tomorrow, he might have found the situation amusing. He was after all being kept in the exact same cell he'd thrown his dad in two years ago.

In retrospect, that may not have been the smartest thing he'd ever done. Along with running away from the only people that had ever shown any actual interest in him. And taking off with Alejandro. And thinking that Nunez would be happy to see him... And leaving Maya behind.

It had been two years since he'd seen her, but the moment he'd spotted her standing on the bar's porch he had felt that little clench in his chest all over again. Too bad he would never get the chance to make it up to her for never taking her on that date. He hoped that she wasn't too broken up about it.

His internal monologue was broken up by the appearance of one of the guards. He had a woman with long, tan - and incredibly sexy - legs thrown over his shoulder.

"Ah, no! Put me down!" She screeched. But the guard ignored her and unlocked the cell door, throwing her into the room with him before locking it back up again and taking off. The poor girl landed face down with a thud and moaned in pain. Conner approached her warily, his eyes taking in the purple dress she was wearing and her blonde hair tumbling out of the complicated looking knot on her head.

Wait a minute... since when were Mexicans blondes?

And why did those legs seem so familiar?

" _Charlie?"_

The woman herself sat up and gave him a self satisfied smirk. "Surprised to see me?"

"I... Well... Yeah. I mean, I thought I ditched you guys back in Arizona."

Charlie rose her eyebrows at him. "Oh, my bad. I guess we'll just leave you to it then." She stood up and turned away from him as if to leave him behind.

"No, no, no, wait. Charlie, you have to get me out of here." He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her for emphasis. "Nunez wants to kill me!"

Charlie calmly brushed his hands away. "Yes, I'm aware."

"Then we have to get out of here! Wait, what do you mean 'you're aware'?"

Rolling her eyes, Charlie sat down on the metal cot and gave him an unimpressed look. "Come on, Conner. Even you can't be that stupid. You abandoned Nunez and released two of the most wanted men on the continent from his custody. You didn't honestly think that he would be happy to see you, did you?"

Well, when you put it that way...

Conner puffed out his chest importantly, refusing to let her talk to him like an insolent child. "It doesn't matter why I'm in here, all that matters is that we get the hell out. Now where's my dad, he'll get me out of here." He turned his back on Charlie and looked out into the hallway to await his father, which turned out to be a huge mistake.

Two incredibly strong arms slammed him face first against the metal bars of the cell door and held him there. "Hey, what the hell. Get off me!"

But she merely pushed harder, his face stuck between two metal bars. "You ungrateful, little shit. You ran away because of one little fight and then left with your little buddy without even considering how it would affect Bass."

Conner huffed angrily against the bars. "Like you've got room to talk, my dad's been following you around like a puppy for years and all you do is string him along like your own personal lap dog. You don't even care about him, you just like having someone to tell what to do."

Charlie growled and smacked his forehead against the bars, causing little white lights to pop in his eyes. "That's different. Bass is my friend, you are supposed to be his son, but you treat him like trash."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

She yanked him backwards and turned him, slamming his back against the bars and getting directly in his face. "All I know is that I would do anything - anything - to have my dad back. But that will never happen for me. And you have your dad, right in front of you, and all he wants to do is love you, but you're too stupid and stuck up to let him!"

Charlie snatched her hands away from him like he'd burned her and wiped away the tears trailing down her cheeks. Conner stared at her, stunned by her sudden outburst of emotion. He'd know Charlie for a while now and this was the first time he'd ever seen her cry.

He reached out to her, feeling like he should offer some type of comfort. "Charlie, I-" But she swatted his hands away and went to the cell door, digging her fingers through her hair as she did.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly to her back. "It's just... I'm not like you. I didn't grow up looking up to my dad and having him around all the time. He just showed up one day and I don't know what he even wants from me."

Charlie turned back around shaking her head. "I told you, Bass just wants a family to love. That's all he cares about. That's why we're here. Your dad dragged us across Mexico to rescue your sorry ass because you're his son and he loves you."

"So my dad is here?" He asked hopefully.

She turned back towards the door with pins in her hands and slipped her arms through the bars to try and pick the lock from the outside. "Uh, yeah. Bass is here."

"Great, so what's the plan?"

"Plan? Oh, uh, the plan is we get out of here and meet him and the guys at the bar."

"Wait, so they aren't coming in to get us?"

Charlie's shoulders sagged in defeat. "Actually, the boys don't even know I'm here."

"Please tell me you're joking."

She turned towards him angrily. "How many time have I saved your sorry ass over the last two years? Oh, yeah, that's right, a lot. So quit your whining and just do what I tell you to do, I'll get us out of here."

Conner watched her turn back to the door and start working the lock again. He let her work for about a minute before asking, "how's it going over there?"

Charlie merely growled at him.

"Relax, I'm just saying that we should probably get a move on."

She whipped her head around to look at him. "You know, this is hard enough to do the regular way. But doing it backwards is even harder! A little quiet, please."

Raising his hands in surrender, Conner plopped down onto the metal cot to wait. Another few minutes passed before he chanced speaking up again. "You know, I could give it a try if you-"

"Shut up! What is with you two and think that you're better than me at this?"

Confused, Conner stared at her while she continued to furiously push and pull on the pins in the lock. "Am I missing something here, or..."

"Gah!" She yanked the pins out of the lock and stomped over to him, shoving them into his hands. "Just get us the fuck out of here."

Trying not to laugh, Conner moved to the door and opened it easily. He looked down at his wrist to check his imaginary watch with a smirk. "Would you look at that, a new personal best."

Charlie stormed past him and muttered, "showoff."

Conner followed after her, his eyes glued to the purple fabric swaying around her hips. "Charlie, where did you get that dress?"

She turned back to him with a grin. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to notice or if Maya was just delusional."

"Maya? You talked to her? Is she OK?"

Charlie chuckled as she led Conner through the basement towards the secret door. "Yeah, yeah. Your girlfriend's fine. In fact, she's waiting to see you."

They pulled the crate back over to the wall and Charlie climbed on top and opened the door. She crawled out and helped pull Conner through. He shut the door and looked down at it thoughtfully.

"I lived here for ten years and never even knew this was there. You've been here for all of ten minutes and already know more secret places than I do."

Charlie rolled her eyes and started pulling him towards the tunnel opening. "Yeah, you can tell me all about how awesome I am later. For now, let's just get the hell out of here." But they stopped short as two large men dropped down from the wall above them.

"Or not."

* * *

A/N Ah, so close! But you guys know I love cliffhangers. Comment if you've got a minute. :-D


	7. Chapter 7

Charlie and Conner stood back to back, a mere three feet from the escape tunnel, with a man facing each one of them. Being his usual, lazy self, Conner tried to talk his way out of doing any actual work.

"Guillermo! It's great to see you, buddy. How you been?"

Charlie tried and failed miserably not to roll her eyes at him. "Seriously, these guys want to kill us and you want to catch up now?" The man facing her grinned, his eyes traveling down the length of her bare legs.

"Better late than never, right?" Conner tried.

The man on his side, Guillermo, snorted and pulled his sword from his belt. "Come on, boy. It's time for you to go back into time out."

With their backs pressed together, Charlie could feel Conner shaking, but he held it together surprisingly well. "I think I'll pass on the time out, thanks for the offer though." She felt it the moment Conner made his move. He gave himself a bit of a boost by pushing off of her back and she used it to go after her own guy. She crashed against him from the force of her momentum and they both hit the ground with Charlie sprawled on to of him. He opened his mouth to say something but all she got was a face full of alcohol breath. Groaning in disgust, Charlie took the knife from his belt easily and shoved it up between his ribs.

Turning around, she saw Conner shove Guillermo against the back of the large house with his hands wrapped around the other man's neck. Guillermo struggled and gasped for breath but Conner held him in place until his body went limp.

Now of course Charlie had seen Conner kill before, it was just rare to see him do it so willingly and without even an ounce of regret. He was usually the one that knocked people out rather than shooting them like she and the others typically did.

"You OK?" She asked him as she pulled aside the fake grass and lifted the metal circle blocking their escape.

He bent down to help her, taking the grate from her hands and setting it aside with a strangely blank face. "Yeah." He turned and looked at Guillermo on the ground before looking back at her with a very serious expression. "I've know that guy since I was a kid and I've seen him do a lot of shit. Trust me, he deserved that and then some."

Charlie nodded and started to climb down into the sewer. "No arguments here."

She dropped to the bottom of the ladder and stepped aside just in time for Guillermo's body to drop down next to her. "What are you doing?" She hissed up at him. But Conner ignored her and dropped the man that she had stabbed down through the hole as well before climbing down and replacing the circle over his head.

When his feet hit the ground, Conner turned to her with a grim smile. "Nunez and his pals think that they've got me locked up, if they had found these two behind the house they would have known that I escaped. This way we might have bought ourselves a little time to get out of here."

Charlie huffed and crossed her arms, secretly impressed that he had thought of that before she did. "Well a little warning would have been nice. You almost dropped a corpse on my head."

Conner rolled his eyes at her as he set off down the tunnel. "Quit whining and come on, I wanna get the hell out of here."

Grinning, Charlie called after him. "That's a great idea, but the exits this way." He turned back to find her smirking and pointing in the opposite direction he was headed.

As he stormed past her, he muttered, "showoff."

XxX

Miles, Bass, and Jeremy had found the ditch and tunnel entrance with relative ease. They'd left the horses tethered not far from the steep hill and went down to look for Charlie and Conner. Standing at the tunnel entrance, the three of them argued over what their next move should be.

"We need to go in and bring them both out. Right now," Bass said angrily.

Miles simply shook his head. "We have no idea where Charlie went or what her plan is, if we go in now we might blow the whole thing."

"We can't just sit here and do nothing while she's in there alone!"

Jeremy sighed and patted his frightened friend gently on the shoulder. "Bass, we know that you're worried about them, so are we, but you know how Charlie is. She's like a one man wrecking crew, if we try to go in and help we'll just end up screwing up her plan."

The former dictator huffed in a _'I don't like this'_ kind of way and slumped back against the metal side of the tunnel. The three of them waited silently for less than a minute before he couldn't hold back anymore. "This is stupid. We should at least go in and see if she needs help getting them out. You guys know how she is when it comes to the get away. She doesn't exactly think things through."

Miles finally nodded in agreement. Even if it was just to shut him up.

XxX

As she and Conner wound their way through the maze of tunnels, Charlie found herself wanting to return to Bass less and less. She loved him of course, without a doubt. But now that he had finally admitted his feelings for her, she sincerely doubted that he would still feel that way when he found out that she had lied to him about Conner being kidnapped.

Almost as if they were thinking the exact same thing, Conner turned to her and asked, "so how mad is my dad?" Charlie gave him a confused look and he shrugged his shoulders like it didn't really matter, even though she knew it did. "I left without even saying goodbye and didn't look back. I know that you said he walked all this way to get me, but isn't he at least a little mad at me?"

Sighing, she shook her head. "No, he's not mad at you at all."

"Really? Like, not even a little bit?"

"Nope. He's not mad because he doesn't even know that you left. He thinks that you were kidnapped and forced to leave. As far as he's concerned, we're rescuing you."

Conner stopped walking with a confused look on his face. "Why would he think that? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's not pissed, but what made him think that I was kidnapped?"

The guilt weighed down on her a little more and she leaned against the slimey wall for support. "Because that's what I told him."

"You lied to him, why?"

Charlie put her face in her hands and shook her head, trying to shake away the idea that Bass would never forgive her for lying to him. "He was so upset that you were gone, I just couldn't bring myself to tell him that you'd left voluntarily. It would have crushed him."

Conner shook his head slowly. "And now he's going to be mad at me for leaving _and_ you for lying, when it could have just been me."

Nodding sadly, Charlie looked up at Conner's sympathetic face. "Do you think he'll be able to forgive me?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but the voice that sounded around them was not his own. "Maybe if you ask nicely." They both whipped around at the sound of Bass' raspy voice as he, Miles, and Jeremy came out of the shadows.

"What are you doing here?" Charlie asked in surprise.

But Bass just shook his head and went straight for her, almost knocking her over as he pulled her into a bone crushing hug. He kissed the top of her head and whispered close to her ear. "I've spent years chasing after you Charlie. I hope you didn't think you could just sneak out once you got what you wanted."

She chuckled weakly against his neck and shook her head. "So you aren't mad at me?"

"For lying? No. But we are going to talk about you never leaving my bed again, later." He leaned back to catch her eyes. "OK?"

Nodding, she kissed him. "Sounds good."

Conner cleared his throat loudly. "Oh, don't mind me. I'm just the son, returned home, safe and sound."

Bass turned to him and shocked everyone by pulling back his fist and ramming it into the side of Conner's face. He must not have hit him as hard as he could though, because the kid was still standing afterwards, even if he was swaying slightly.

Touching the side of his face gingerly, Conner stared at his father in shock. "What the hell?"

Bass moved towards him again but Charlie pulled him back, feeling protective of him after risking her life to save his sorry ass. Bass shrugged her off though, this time pulling Conner into a tight embrace and mumbling, "I was so worried."

Charlie moved over to Miles and leaned against his side as they watched the father and son reunion.

"You alright, kid?"

She nodded as he wrapped an arm around her and gave her a little squeeze. The equivalent of a hug where Miles was concerned. "Yeah." She yawned widely. "But I'm exhausted. I didn't get any sleep."

Standing on Miles' other side, Jeremy snorted. "Yeah, we know. You and Bass aren't exactly quiet."

Miles suddenly let go of her and groaned. "Ugh. Can we not talk about it, please? Listening to it was bad enough."

Conner looked between Bass and Charlie with a grin. "What! I missed it?" He stomped his foot like an angry child. "Man, I miss everything."

Bass took one look at his son's pouty expression and slapped him on the back of the head. "Stop it. That's... weird."

But the younger Monroe merely shrugged and grinned over at Charlie. "So does this mean I get to call you 'Mom' now?"

"Try it, and I'll slit your throat."

Conner opened his mouth but Bass quickly slapped a hand over it to keep him from talking. "We just rescued you, can you at least try not to get yourself killed right away."

XxX

They made their way back to the horses quickly and mounted up. Conner talking Charlie's horse and her electing to ride with Bass. She had to pull the skirt of her dress up dangerously high just so she could sit comfortably on the horse, though Bass didn't seem to mind as he swung himself up onto the saddle behind her. Her immediately settled his hands on her waist and slid them over the silky fabric covering her skin.

"I like this dress," he hummed with his lips pressed beneath her ear.

Charlie squirmed and tried to pull the skirt down a little. "Don't get used to it. I hate this stupid thing. I want my pants back."

Chuckling against her neck, Bass moved one of his hands to her thigh and squeezed her exposed flesh. "As much as I love you in those tight ass jeans, I definitely like the bare legs." He ran his thumb up the inside of her thigh and skimmed it over the edge of her panties, making her moan softly.

Miles turned his horse from where everyone else was up ahead of them. "Hey, are you guys coming or what?"

Charlie grabbed their horses reigns and spurred him into motion. "Yeah, we're coming!"

Bass never released his grip on her thigh, though his thumb was rubbing more effectively against her with the horses movements. She moaned again, letting her head fall back against his chest and turning to see the smirk on his face. "You're not coming. Not yet, anyway."

She tried to roll her eyes at him but they opened wide when shoved her underwear aside and pushed a single finger into her wet heat. Arching against him, Charlie barely managed not to cry out loud enough for the others to hear. Bass kissed and licked at her neck and bare shoulder, admiring her pert breasts through the thin fabric of her dress while he worked her over. He added another finger to her tight pussy and thumbed her clit, reveling in the small gasps that managed to escape her tight lips.

"God, you're so fucking hot. I can't wait to tear this dress off you and fuck you all night long."

Charlie bit her bottom lip and groaned, then whispered against his cheek with a grin. "Promises, promises."

Growling, he added a third finger and picked up the pace, his fingers sliding through her slick juices with loud, wet noises. "I'm gonna fuck you so hard you scream my name loud enough for the whole town to hear. Then everyone will know that you're mine."

Her breath caught in the back of her throat and her entire body tensed as her orgasm tore through her. Bass fucked her slowly with his fingers and placed gentle kisses along her jaw as she floated back down to Earth. When she turned her head to look at him, he pulled his fingers out of her and stuck them straight in his mouth, licking them completely clean while she watched. He pulled the last finger from his mouth with a _'pop'_ and whispered, "mine."

Charlie captured his lips with her own, shoving her tongue into his mouth to taste herself. Bass leaned into the kiss but she abruptly pulled away from him and grinned as she wiggled herself in her seat, his hardness pressing firmly against her ass. She scraped her nails down his cheek and kissed his jaw, whispering against his skin. "Nope, you're mine."

XxX

Several miles out from the tunnel, Bass and Charlie finally rejoined the test of the group, ignoring the looks of amusement from Conner and Jeremy, and the look of horror mixed with disgust that they were getting from Miles.

"We should stop for the night and get some rest while we can," Miles suggested.

"No, we need to keep going." Everyone turned to look at Conner in shock. Never once had he volunteered to keep going, he always wanted to stop and sleep. He rolled his eyes at them all in an annoyed way. "Nunez is back there throwing a big party, which means that everyone is going to be up really late and that they'll all be tired and hung over tomorrow. Odds are, no one will realize I'm gone until some time after noon, which means we should get as far away from here while we can and find a good place to hide before they send out the search parties."

Miles frowned. "I don't know, I think it would be better for us to rest that way when they come looking we'll be able to make a run for it without being exhausted."

"No, we need to keep moving. There's a river a few more miles from here. We can go through it so we don't leave a trail for them to follow and then find a place to set up camp so we can sleep. That way, we'll be rested and out of harms way."

Miles still didn't look convinced and turned to Bass for support, but Charlie cut across them. "I agree with Conner."

"What?" Jeremy was looking at her like she was crazy but she merely shrugged.

"Conner knows Nunez and how he operates better than any of us. He also knows the area better. He's the expert here, we should take his lead," she reasoned.

"Yeah, but... he's _Conner_ ," Miles said, as if she'd forgotten.

"I know that," Charlie snapped back at him. "But we're in a foreign country where we don't even speak the language. If we were in Wisconsin, wouldn't you say that letting me take the lead would be best? When we were in Philly, you took the lead because you said 'it was your city' so you knew everything about it. This is the exact same thing, you're just being stubborn because you think Conner's useless."

Miles looked around at everyone awkwardly. "Well so do you," he said defensively.

Sighing, Charlie nodded. "I did, but now I think that we need to give him a chance."

Behind her, Bass squeezed her hand gratefully. "I'm with Charlie, let's give the kid a chance." Jeremy nodded in agreement, making Miles bite his lip and attempt not to roll his eyes. He turned to Conner and waved for him to keep moving.

"Alright, fine. Get going, kid. We're following you."

Conner turned his horse in the direction that they all assumed the river must be and took off with a giant smile. As they followed after him, Miles sidled up to Bass and Charlie with a scowl. "I hope you're right about this," he said.

Charlie nodded in agreement. "Yeah, me too."

XxX

It wasn't long before they found the river, but Bass had to take the reigns as they trudged through the water because Charlie was fast asleep with her head thrown back against his shoulder. He chuckled as he steered the horse through the water and followed the others. Conner lead them about a mile downstream before he finally pulled his own horse up onto dry ground on the opposite side. He had somehow managed to find the only place in the Mexican desert with trees and led them towards them.

What none of them had been expecting, was to find Maya and Ricardo sleeping soundly on the ground. They both popped up at the sound of their approach and Maya let out a terrified speak which cause Charlie to jerk awake. "Are we there yet?" She asked sleepily, though no one heard her as Conner jumped off of his horse and ran to Maya.

"Oh, thank God you're OK." He pulled her tight against his chest and they all watched as she went willingly into his arms.

Maya looked up at him, the moonlight highlighting the tears running down her cheeks. "I was so worried about you. I thought for sure you would be dead."

Conner shook his head and pulled her close again. "I'm fine, I promise. I'm so sorry, Maya. I'm sorry I left you here."

She shook her head at him, smiling as she cupped his cheeks. "I am just happy that you are safe." The two kissed sweetly, making Charlie sigh at how cute they were and making Ricardo rise angrily to his feet.

"Take your hands off of her!"

"Papa, please," Maya begged. But he wasn't hearing it.

"No. You will not be with this man. He is a monster, who takes children away from their families." Ricardo grabbed Maya by the arm and yanked her away from Conner, but she pushed her father away angrily.

"No! Conner saved me from them! Do you remember when Mama got sick and we used all of our money to pay for medicine? We didn't have the money to pay the taxes that year, and you thought that I was going to be taken away. Do you remember, Papa?"

"Of course I do," he huffed. "I thought that I was going to lose both you all at once. But I didn't because you did extra work with Luisa. She gave you the money to pay the taxes."

Maya looked at her father guiltily and shook her head. "No, Papa. I could never have earned that much money in such a short amount of time. Conner gave me the money to pay for my freedom. If it wasn't for him, Nunez would have taken me away a long time ago."

Ricardo looked confusedly between the two of them. "But..." His eyes landed on Conner. "Why?"

Conner's mouth opened and closed, though no words came out. Eventually, he just shrugged. "I love her."

Maya turned to him with wide eyes. "You do?"

"Yeah. I guess I kinda have for a long time."

Flinging her arms around him, Maya completely ignored the presence of her father and Conner's family, and kissed him. Quite a bit more than any of them would have like to see.

Charlie bit back a smile and leaned into Bass. "Aww, who would of thought that Conner's actually a romantic."

Jeremy snorted. "Umm, me."

"Right, we should have known. Nothing ever gets past you, Jer." Miles said sarcastically.

But the other man just smiled. "Come on, Miles. The kid's just like Bass. Chases after every girl he meets, until he meets _the one,_ then he becomes the picture perfect boyfriend. Now Bass gets Charlie, Conner gets Maya, and the Monroe boys live happily ever after. It's simple I've-known-him-for-twenty-years logic."

Miles actually laughed and nodded. "Yep, that's pretty much how they do it."

Bass looked between his two oldest friends with mock outrage on his face. "Excuse me, I didn't chase after _every_ girl."

But Charlie elbowed him in the ribs to keep him quiet. "Oh, just shut up and live happily ever after."

Bass leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. "OK."

"That's great you two, I'm super happy for you," Miles said quickly, though he didn't look the least bit happy to see them kissing. "But we still need to deal with all of the kids locked up in Nunez's mansion that are being forced into slavery."

Jeremy glared at him. "Seriously, we couldn't have our happily ever after for just one night?"

* * *

A/N I'm sorry that it's been a little longer than usual since my last update on this. My family decided that now would be a great time to have some serious drama, so I've been dealing with them for the past four days. I had to lock myself in my apartment and shut off my phone just to get some peace and quiet today and ended up spending most of my time working on this. That being said, this has been edited even less than I usually do (which as you guys know, isn't a lot) so I apologize for whatever terrible mistakes are in here. I will try my best to stay away from my ridiculous, over dramatic family, but if it takes me a little longer to get updates up, I blame them. Thanks for reading. :-)


	8. Chapter 8

The night passed by slowly. Conner, Maya, and Ricardo talked for hours about the days before Nunez had taken over their home. Bass sat with Charlie tucked against his side and listened to stories of his son's childhood with a mixture of jealousy and pride. Miles passed around a bottle and it wasn't long before everyone was laughing chatting drunkenly about their lives.

Charlie had been dozing on Bass' shoulder for over an hour before he finally nudged her awake. "Hey, you should go get some sleep."

She blinked sleepily and smiled. "I was sleeping. You just ruined it."

Bass kissed her forehead gently and said, "I meant that you should go lay down and sleep."

"Is this some attempt to get me into bed, because I'm not really feeling up to it right now."

"Not everything is about sex, Charlie."

She sat up and stretched her arms above her head, pushing her breasts into his immediate view and watching his eyes fall to them in amusement. Dropping her arms, she smirked over at him. "It's not all about sex, huh?"

"I said it's not _all_ about sex, I didn't say that sex wasn't a factor." He put a hand on her thigh and squeezed it for emphasis, making Charlie shiver. She leaned into him and brought her lips close to his ear.

"I think I'm gonna go change back into my clothes before I go to bed." She stood up rapidly and grabbed her pack before taking off for the trees. Stopping at the edge of the clearing, she turned and raised a single eyebrow at him questioningly. Bass stood abruptly and made to follow her.

"Oh, yeah. Real subtle, you guys. That's great." Miles called after them, but Charlie merely laughed and stuck her middle finger up at him. Once out of sight of the others, Bass grabbed her around the waist and pushed her against a tree, pinning her with his own body and sliding his hands beneath the dress along her thighs.

"So is this your way of proving that all I care about is sex?" He asked her.

Charlie chuckled and pulled him closer, sealing her lips over his. She slid her hand down his stomach and cupped his hardening dick through his jeans, making him groan against her mouth. Pulling back, she grinned up at him. "I never said that it was a bad thing."

She grabbed him by the hair and yanked him back down to her level, shoving her tongue into his welcoming mouth. Bass pulled at the knot at the back of her neck in an attempt to remove the dress, but Charlie stopped him.

"Wait, Maya wants this dress back so we can't mess it up."

Growling like a petulant child, Bass reluctantly undid the knot slowly and helped her slide out of the silky garment with gentle hands. Charlie draped it over a low hanging tree branch and turned back to find Bass looking at her with hooded eyes.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered. His hands stroked over the flesh of her hips and over her smooth belly, up to her breasts where he cupped them gently, rubbing his thumbs over her hardening nipples. Charlie arched into his touch as she pulled him down for another kiss. Their tongues battled back and forth as one of his hands slid down her stomach and through her wet curls. She gasped when his fingers brushed over her clit and dipped into her soaked pussy. He pushed two fingers into her wet heat and watched her cry out silently with her head thrown back.

"So wet for me, baby. I bet you can't wait for me to fuck you again."

Charlie surprised him by shaking her head and shoving her hand into his jeans. Her fingers wrapped around his cock as she moaned, "don't want to wait anymore."

Growling deep in his chest, Bass shoved his pants down around his ankles and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her off of the ground with her back pressed against the tree. She wrapped her long legs around him and directed his cock straight at her entrance. He surged forward into her slippery depths with a loud groan.

"God, I fucking love you."

Charlie moaned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding onto his shirt for support. "Fucking love you, too."

He held tightly to her hips and set a fast pace, fucking her hard and deep against the tree. Charlie latched onto his neck with her teeth, biting and sucking in an attempt to keep herself quiet. He was already so close, he knew he wouldn't last much longer. "Fuck, I'm gonna come."

Licking her way up his neck, she bit lightly on his earlobe. "Come for me, baby," she whispered, making him slam into her hard and shoot his hot come deep inside of her. He didn't even have to time to think or catch his breath as Charlie shoved him away from her, letting herself fall clumsily to her feet and pushing him to his knees. "I'm not done with you yet," she growled and threw her leg over his shoulder, shoving his face into her wet pussy.

Bass didn't hesitate to shove his tongue into her dripping entrance, tasting his own salty fluids mixed with her sweet ones. Her hands grabbed at his hair and her hips bucked against his face as he licked and sucked. He found her clit with his thumb and rubbed it in quick circles, making her pussy clench around his tongue. Charlie let out a strangled gasp and collapsed against the tree, the only thing keeping her up was his hands on her waist.

Bass stood and kissed her slowly, spreading their combined juices over her lips. "Are you done with me now?" He asked with a smirk.

But Charlie just smiled. "For now. I'll let you know when I'm ready again."

He chuckled as he peppered light kisses along her jaw. "I can't wait."

XxX

No one bothered mentioning how long they'd been gone when they returned to camp, though Bass noticed that Miles was the only one deliberately facing away from the trees. He made his way over to him and pretended to be looking for something in Miles' pack.

"Everything alright, brother?"

Miles huffed, but opened his eyes to look at him. "Are you really going to call me 'brother' after what you just did with my niece?"

Bass gave him a confused look. "I thought that you said you were OK with this - with us - I mean."

Miles closed his eyes again and rolled onto his back so he wouldn't have to look at him. "I said that I knew how you felt about her, I never said that I was OK with it."

"Miles, I... I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were so against it, I wouldn't have-"

"Oh, just stop." Miles stood up abruptly.

"Stop, what? What do you want, Miles?"

"This isn't about me!" He yelled angrily.

Everyone in camp turned to stare at the two of them, including Charlie who was looking rather worried, but Bass waved her off as he led Miles further away from camp.

"What are you talking about Miles, what do you mean this isn't about you?"

Miles pulled himself away from him and made a pained sort of face. "Well, it's not." He growled something under his breath but said nothing for a moment. "Look, this thing with you and Charlie has nothing to do with me."

"Yeah, but I don't want you to be mad at me-"

"Will you shut up about me already? _It's not about me!_ Just because I don't like something doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. You're fucking forty-eight years old, don't you think it's time to start doing things for yourself?"

Bass stared at him confusedly. "So let me get this straight... You're glad that I'm doing what I want, you just don't like that what I want is Charlie. But you think I should keep doing it anyway, because I'm old."

Miles scrunched up his face but nodded. "Yes."

"So you aren't mad at me?"

"No."

"Then why were you yelling?"

"Because you just fucked my niece in the woods a hundred feet away from me! What were expecting, a congratulations?"

Bass bit back a smile a nodded understandingly. "Thanks, Miles."

"Whatever." He stomped off back to camp.

Bass followed him happily and found everyone else already settled in just as the sun started coming up. He kicked off his boots and slid into Charlie's bedroll, wrapping himself snugly around her and falling right to sleep.

XxX

"This is crazy. There is no way that you can walk into Luis' compound again without someone noticing you," Ricardo said.

Charlie shrugged unconcernedly. "Of course I can. And it won't even be the first time I've done it."

But Conner shook his head at her. "You got lucky the first time, Charlie. Nunez won't make that mistake again. There's no way that you'll be able to get in, kill him, and get out without being noticed."

"Are you sure that killing Señor Nunez is a good idea?" Maya asked. "Won't killing him just cause more problems?"

Bass gave Maya a sympathetic look. He liked her, he really did, but the poor girl really had no idea what she was getting herself into. "Maya, there is no other way. Believe me, when you're dealing with a power hungry maniac, the only way to stop him is by killing him."

They were all sitting around the camp fire enjoying a late breakfast while they discussed how to free all of Nunez's slaves. Charlie looked at Bass out of the corner of her eye, the unsaid _'but no one killed you'_ traveling between them. But he shook those thought away and directed his attention back to the conversation.

"If we murder Luis, then the entire town will go crazy. It's not that they want him to be in charge, it's just that he has been for so long that they won't know what to do with themselves without him." Ricardo said.

"That's where you come in," Miles told him.

Ricardo looked taken aback, as if the idea of him running a town was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. "I can not be in charge," he protested.

"Why not?" Conner asked him. "You've been a leader in the community for as long as I can remember. People listen to you and they respect you, and that's what they need. When Nunez goes down, they're going to need you to help keep things in order."

Ricardo frowned around at all of them. "This is crazy," he said quietly.

Jeremy snorted and popped a bit of bread into his mouth. "Well then lucky for you, crazy is kind of our specialty."

Maya saw the look of disbelief still etched in her father's face and reached out to take his hand. "Papa, you heard them. This is the only way we can keep our people safe. You can do it, I know you can."

His eyes softened and he kissed her forehead. "I will do it. For you."

Miles, ever the one with bad timing, stood up abruptly. "Great, then we should get moving." Out of habit, Charlie, Bass, Jeremy, and Conner all rose to their feet and moved to start breaking camp.

Ricardo and Maya looked around at them confusedly. "Wait, where are we going?" Maya asked.

"We can't take Nunez on by ourselves. We're good, but we aren't that good. We'll need to gather up some of the other townspeople to help us fight off the angry mob for when attack their compund."

"We can not ask these people to fight," Ricardo argued. "They are simple farmers, not soldiers!"

Miles laid a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. "I know that you're trying to protect everyone, and that's a good thing - it's what a leader is supposed to do, but the only way these people will ever be safe is if we get rid of Nunez and his gang for good. It's hard, but it'll be worth it when all of those kids are back home where they belong."

Ricardo sighed and nodded. "OK. I'll do it. I will get them to fight with me."

XxX

"I'm starting to think that Ricardo had a really good point," Jeremy whispered. "This is kinda crazy, Charlie." She chuckled as the two of them moved silently through the sewage tunnel towards Nunez's mansion again.

"Quit whining, we need to get into position."

"Are you sure you don't want to change your mind? We could always turn back now and tell Miles and Bass to find another way."

Charlie stopped and turned around to poke her friend in the chest. "OK, first of all, this plan was my idea. And second, we're on a clock, which means we can't just turn back now otherwise Nunez and all his little minions will realize that we're up to something and they'll retaliate before we can even get into the compound."

She turned back around and continued walking, ignoring Jeremy's mumbled, "fine."

They kept moving until they found themselves at the bottom of the same ladder that she and Conner had climbed down just a few days before. Much to Charlie's surprise, the two men that they had killed and dropped through the hole were still there. Their decomposing bodies reeked of rotten flesh.

"Ugh, who the hell are these guys?" Jeremy asked.

Charlie pulled her shirt up over her nose and tried not to breath too deeply. "Me and Conner ran into them on our way out of the compound the other day. I figured that Nunez and his guys would have found them by now, the sewer isn't exactly hidden up there. There was no way to pull the grass cover back over it once we were down here."

Jeremy shrugged and stepped over one of their legs to get to the ladder. "Whatever, let's just hope Miles and his new farmer friends know what they're doing so we can get the hell out of here."

"How close do you think we are to game time?"

Jeremy shrugged his shoulders again. "I don't know, probably less than five minutes."

Charlie grabbed hold of the ladder and started to climb. "Well we should get into position just in case."

He followed up behind her though she had barely reached the top rung before the entire tunnel started to shake. A large explosion sounded above them in the distance and Charlie felt Jeremy push up on her left foot.

"That's it, it's game time."

Charlie pushed up on the metal circle above her head and tried to shove it away, finding it a little difficult due to the patch of fake grass that was laying over top of it. She managed to shove it aside and climbed out as another explosion shook the ground below her feet. Jeremy climbed out behind her and she pointed down at the patch of grass. "Look, someone must have put it back after we left. That's why no one found the bodies."

"Thats great but we don't have time, we need to go." He pointed behind her worriedly. "Like, right now!"

She turned to find a stream of people coming from the secret door at the bottom of the house. Jeremy had a hold of her arm and was trying to pull her away, but Charlie pulled herself from his grip and ran to the leader of the escapees.

"Claudia!"

But of course, Maya's friend still didn't speak English. She started ranting rapidly in Spanish, causing the younger girls behind her to cower with fear. Charlie looked from Claudia to the fake grass and realized that she must have been the one to cover up the sewer when they left. Claudia had clearly wanted to be able to use her escape route again and by the looks of things, she was trying to do so at that moment.

"Stop, I get it!" Charlie shouted over her Spanish. "Just get those kids out of here!" She pointed at all of the little girls and then down at the hole. Claudia stopped speaking and nodded, ushering the children down the ladder. They were all wearing torn and ragged clothes, and each one was sporting various bruises on their arms and legs. A few of them even had wounds on their faces.

A small girl, no more than eight, passed by Charlie wearing nothing but a pink t-shirt with her bare bottom, complete with angry red fingerprints, on full display. Charlie looked over to Jeremy and found a matching horrified expression on his face. Blood boiling, Charlie crammed herself through the secret door into the house and didn't even wait to see if he was following.

Instead of wasting time trying to navigate through the house like last time, Charlie just followed the sounds of the angry men upstairs who were fighting. She and Jeremy burst through the basement door and into the kitchen just in time to see one of Nunez's guys get clobbered by a farmer with a baseball bat. They looked around at the other people fighting, spotting fires in the yard outside the window. Jeremy grabbed her arm and pulled her off to the left towards a set of stairs.

"Come on, there's no time for sight seeing."

They crossed paths with a few men along the way but they dispatched them with ease. Honestly, none of those poor guys really stood a chance against the Militia's former best Captain and Miles' mini-protégé. At the top of the steps, the house was eerily quiet. It seemed that everyone was already outside fighting, or perhaps just waiting to ambush them. Charlie sheathed the sword that she'd borrowed from one of the farmers in favor of her crossbow and loaded an arrow.

Conner had drawn them a detailed layout of the house that showed where Nunez was most likely to be and made Charlie commit it to memory so that they wouldn't get lost. Which was apparently had been a great idea because she had to pull Jeremy back from going in the opposite direction of where their target would supposedly be. They made their way through the upper floor quietly, trying desperately to ignore the sounds of a battle waging below them and outside.

Jeremy stopped at the end of the last hallway which led to Nunez's office and peered around the corner. "It's clear."

Charlie slid past him with her crossbow raised and approached the closed door. She tried the handle but it was unsurprisingly locked. One look in Jeremy's direction and a tilt of her head later, and he simply kicked the door down, completely taking it off of its hinges. They moved into the empty room and stood directly in front of a large, ornate desk.

Luckily, Conner had warned them that this might happen so they weren't surprised to find that no one was home, or that it seemed like no one was home at least. Charlie moved over to the wall opposite the bookcase and stood facing it while Jeremy stood next to it with his fingers wrapped around a candelabra hanging on the wall.

' _Ready?'_ He mouthed to her. Charlie nodded and aimed her crossbow at the book shelf with her finger on the trigger. Jeremy pulled down on the candelabra and they both watched the bookcase swing open to reveal a man in an expensive looking suit, presumably Nunez, flanked by three thugs with guns.

The guy closest to the door didn't waste any time and came rushing out only have his throat slit by Jeremy as he passed him. Charlie aimed at the guy on Nunez's right and shot him in the neck, leaving the third man with his gun pointed directly at Jeremy. It was a laughable attempt, but the guy almost managed to fire his weapon before Jeremy yanked it from his hands and shot him with his own gun.

Nunez stood back against the far wall breathing heavily and looking between the two of them with wild eyes. "Who are you people? What do you want?"

Charlie grinned. She couldn't help it. "Me? Oh, I'm nobody. But I think you might be familiar with my friend, Conner."

Nunez's eyes went dark with anger. "He is a dead man! He had no right to desert me!"

Approaching him slowly, Charlie shook her head. "He left so he could be with his father. He had every right."

"Monroe knows nothing of Conner. He just wants him for his stupid Republic."

Charlie shoved him in the chest angrily. "No, Bass loves him. Unlike you, who just took advantage of a scared kid and turned him into your prized little leader."

"Bass?" Nunez asked, his face turning her in amusement. "I see that you seem to think that you know him."

"Considering the fact that he frequently shares my bed, yeah, I guess you could say that I know him pretty well."

Nunez's eyes went wide, then travelled over the features of her face and quickly down to the neckline of her tank top. "Monroe sends his woman to do his dirty work?" He asked with a sly grin.

"Actually," Bass corrected him as he came into the room, "I don't send her anywhere. Have you ever tried to tell a Matheson what to do? Well, trust me, it's really fucking hard."

Nunez looked between Bass and Charlie confusedly. "Matheson?"

Charlie took the opportunity to step back and lean against the wall with a smile. "Yep, that's me, Charlie Matheson. I believe you may have met my uncle, Miles Matheson.

Nunez swallowed thickly, the motion visible even from across the room as Miles joined them in the crowded space. "Oh, look who it is. You know I gotta tell you, I've been waiting for this rematch for a long time."

Looking around at all of them, the cartel leader slumped defeatedly against the wall. "What do you want? I'll do anything."

Conner stepped into the room and Charlie was a little taken aback by the cold look in his eyes as he glared at Nunez. "There's nothing you can do Luis. It's over."

"You ungrateful bastard. I took you in when you had no place else to go, show me some respect!"

But Conner simply raised his gun and pointed it directly between his eyes. "I'm done taking orders from you." And he pulled the trigger. Nunez's face exploded in a blast of blood and brain matter as his body slumped to the floor. Conner took a moment to stare at the lifeless body of his former mentor before turning away.

"We should go," he said quietly. "Ricardo already has everyone gathered outside the gates. They'll want to know that it's finally over."

Charlie caught Conner's arm on his way out the door. "Hey, the plan was for me to kill Nunez, not you."

He shrugged. "I helped make him who he was. If it wasn't for all of the things I'd done, he wouldn't have been nearly as powerful as he was. I made the mess, so I needed to clean it up."

Bass squeezed Conner's shoulder gently. "You did good, son. Now come on, let's go help get this place back in order."

Charlie, Miles, and Jeremy followed the father-son pair out of the room behind the bookcase, leaving Nunez and his thugs behind to rot.

* * *

A/N I think one more chapter should wrap this up nicely. Thanks for reading guys!


	9. Chapter 9

The townspeople were gathered just outside the gates of the mansion. Ricardo was standing in the back of a wagon speaking to all of them in Spanish. They seemed a little confused about what was going on but for the most part, they just seemed relieved. A man in the crowd, one of the farmers that had helped them ambush the compound, shouted something up at Ricardo who turned to look at Charlie and Bass standing off to the side.

"They want to know where the children are," Ricardo told them.

The entire crowd was watching her carefully so Charlie attempted a smile. "They're alright. Maya's friend Claudia escaped with all of them when the fighting started."

She turned to Bass as Ricardo eased the worried parents. "I'm gonna go get them and bring them back. They should have made it out of the tunnel by now."

"I'll come with you," he said, moving to follow her.

Charlie started towards a wagon that already had the horses hitched to it, noticing Conner hanging back with Maya in the background. She stopped and laid a hand on Bass' arm.

"Hey, I think you should stay here. I'm gonna take Conner with me."

Bass frowned, his eyes sweeping over her face and over to his son. "Why?"

"Because he's the one that took them from their families, he needs to be the one that brings them home."

Nodding, Bass kissed her gently on the lips. "Don't be long."

She rolled her eyes at him and set off in Conner and Maya's direction. Grabbing the front of his jacket, she dragged him away from her and towards the wagon.

"Charlie, what the hell?"

"Come on, we've got work to do."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, sounding more annoyed than angry.

Maya caught up with them as Charlie all but shoved Conner onto the front bench of the wagon. "What is happening, where are you taking him?" She asked worriedly.

Charlie smiled warmly at her. "Don't worry, Maya. I'll bring him back to you in a little bit, he's just got a few more things to clean up first."

Hopping up into the seat next to him, Charlie grabbed the reigns and directed the horses towards Claudia's escape tunnel.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Conner asked.

"To rescue all of the kids that you kidnapped and forced into slavery," she replied dryly.

"Oh." He sat back in the seat and was quiet for a long time.

XxX

The townspeople had been informed that their children would be arriving home shortly and were waiting impatiently in the street. Maya and Ricardo were attempting to soothe the worried parents while Miles, Bass, and Jeremy rounded up the members of the cartel that were still alive. Only a few of them remained, all of which were spouting on about being forced to do Nunez's bidding. They decided to throw them in the vault at the old bank and let Ricardo deal with them later.

Miles slammed the vault door closed with a satisfied smile. "Well, now that that's done, we should go pack our crap."

"Pack? Where are we going?" Jeremy asked.

"We've been here long enough. I mean, sure, these people are happy we're here now, but as soon as they stop and think about who we really are they're gonna want us out of here."

Bass nodded solemnly. "Which means we need to go before the angry farmers with pitchforks show up at our door."

"Yeah."

Jeremy sighed. "Why couldn't I have just found some normal friends that don't always have people trying to kill them?"

XxX

"Where are they?" Conner asked as Charlie examined the ground around the tunnel entrance. They had come out here expecting the find the children waiting but unfortunately, it seemed like Claudia had a different idea in mind.

"Maybe Claudia is just trying to get the kids as far away from Nunez as possible. She had no way of knowing how the fight would turn out, so she's probably just taking them someplace safe."

"Well the closest town is ten miles east of here. How far do you think they could have gotten?"

"A bunch of malnourished children with no experience in the outdoors? I'd have to say not far. Two, maybe three miles."

Conner hauled himself back up into the wagon and grabbed the reigns. "Then let's get moving. The sun is up and it's only going to get hotter, we need to get them out of desert before they all die of dehydration."

Charlie climbed up next to him and they started off again. This time she let him drive and took the opportunity to watch him quietly. Something about his new attitude was bothering her. Not that having a nice Conner was a bad thing, it was just really unusual.

"What's going on with you?"

He gave her a quick sideways glance and feigned innocence. "What are you talking about?"

"Ever since I sprung you from Nunez's basement, you've been acting... different."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

Charlie bit her lip thoughtfully. "It isn't. It's good, actually. You just seem... unhappy, maybe?"

Conner scoffed and shook his head. "I'm free, Nunez is dead, and all of the kids are going home. How could I possibly be unhappy?"

Smiling, she nudged his shoulder. "Don't forget about Maya. For some odd reason, she loves your stupid ass." But instead of making him laugh like she'd thought it would, Conner remained silent.

"Is this about Maya?" Charlie asked incredulously. "Oh no, don't tell me that you're not actually in love her and that you just said you were so she would sleep with you."

He nearly dropped the reigns in shock. "What, no! Of course I love her."

"Then what's the problem?"

He was quiet for a moment. "It's just that... we'll have to leave soon. The people in town aren't just going to stop hating me because I bring their kids back. I give it a week and they'll be beating down my door."

Charlie nodded slowly. "Yeah, and..."

"And I can't just ask Maya to come with me. This is her home, she's never even left town. There's no way she can live the kind of life we do, constantly moving around and always looking over our shoulders. I can't ask her to do that. It wouldn't be fair to her, she deserves better."

Charlie sighed and shook her head. "You know you really are just like him."

"Like who?"

"Bass. You and him are just alike. For the past three years, your dad has avoided me, wasting time because he decided that I deserved better so I should go be with someone else. Well guess what? That wasn't his decision to make. I knew exactly what I was getting into with him, and I still wanted it anyways. I love Bass, exactly the way he is, no conditions. I made my decision to be with him a long time ago.

"And you have to let Maya make her own decision, too. Because if you up and leave thinking that you're doing her a favor, you'll become the same kind of sad, pathetic guy that Bass was. The only difference is, that I waited for him to get his head out of his ass. You've already been away from Maya for two years, are you willing to risk that she might not be here waiting with open arms when you come crawling back?"

Conner swallowed thickly and looked away from her. "What if she doesn't choose me?" He asked quietly. And for just a moment, Charlie could see the same insecurities that she saw in Bass everyday. Laying a hand over his, she squeezed it gently.

"Then you move on." Then she added, "but I wouldn't worry about it too much. She seems like the kinda girl that knows what she wants."

"You think?" He asked hopefully.

"Trust me, she'll have you whipped into shape in no time."

"Oh, like you've got my dad?" He teased.

"Exactly."

They rode on for a while in companionable silence, each of them watching the ground on either side of the wagon for any sign of the escaped children. After about an hour of riding, Conner nudged her shoulder and pointed to their left.

"Look over there."

A mass of moving bodies, distorted by distance and a haze of heat, was moving steadily east. They pulled the horses in the group's direction and quickened their pace. As they grew closer, Conner shouted out to them.

"Claudia, wait. _¡Espérame!"_

They pulled up alongside the group of girls, all of whom looked worn and thirsty. Claudia looked suspiciously at Conner but upon catching sight of Charlie, grinned.

" _¿Esta terminado?"_ She asked with a hopeful face. Charlie glanced over at Conner questioningly.

"She wants to know if the fighting is over," he told her with a smile. Charlie looked back at Claudia and nodded, squeezing her shoulder gently.

"Yes. Are you ready to go home?"

Claudia looked in the direction of the town and smiled softly. "Yes. Home." Her voice was thick with emotion, but her English was easy to understand. She turned to the rest of the children, who all seemed to look to her as their leader, and said something in Spanish, waving them all towards the back of the wagon. Some of them cheered and some of them cried. Some of them did both.

Charlie hopped up into the back of the wagon to help the kids get situated and gave them all a drink from her canteen. Conner was with Claudia at the back of the wagon helping lift the little girls up onto the wagon bed. All in all, there were thirteen girls including Claudia. The little girl in the pink shirt that didn't have any pants on was last in line to be put in the wagon. Charlie watched Conner's face change from happy to be helping to guilty as he looked at her bare bottom half. He pulled off his sweaty over shirt, leaving him in a plain t-shirt, and bent down to tie it around her tiny waist like a skirt. The little girl smiled shyly up at him and he grinned back before lifting her gently to sit with the others.

Claudia looked him up and down, her eyes still a little skeptical, but she smiled nonetheless. "Good," she said slowly. Conner nodded and offered her his hand to help her up into the wagon as well. She accepted it gladly and settled herself amongst the younger girls.

"You ready go?" Charlie asked him from the bench up front. He smiled, probably the biggest one she had ever seen on him and rounded the wagon, jumping into the seat next to her.

"Yeah, let's get these girls home."

XxX

The children had all been returned home, the prisoners were all locked in their cells, and the base of operations for the Nunez cartel sat empty and unused at the end of the main road. Bass and Charlie were sitting side by side on the front porch of Ricardo's bar looking at the stars while the townsfolk celebrated their freedom inside.

"I kinda like Mexico," Charlie told him. "The people here are nice."

Bass kissed the side of her head and chuckled in her ear. "You just think they're nice because you can't understand what they're saying."

Nodding in agreement, she turned to kiss him gently on the lips. "I still like it here, though."

"Yeah, me too. They don't seem to hate me here as much as the people up north."

Charlie hummed in agreement as he leaned in for another kiss. Their lips moved slowly, a gentle exploration after a long, hard day.

"Oh, come on," Miles groaned as he and Jeremy piled out of the crowded bar onto the porch. "Get a room."

Charlie rolled her eyes and rested her head on Bass' shoulder. "Stop being such a baby, Miles. We were just kissing, it's not like we were fucking out here where everyone could see."

His eyes went wide and he covered his ears with his hands. "Ugh, I will never unheard that!"

The rest of them howled with laughter. Jeremy wiped the tears from his eyes and slapped Miles on the back. "Come on, man. It's not like she was a virgin."

Miles' eyes went, if possible, even wider and he groaned in horror. "So! She's... And I... I gave her a stuffed pony for her fourth birthday," he said weakly, taking a deep drink from the bottle in his hand.

They all laughed, if possible, even louder.

Maya came out onto the porch and looked around at the small, happy family, frowning slightly.

"What's wrong, Maya?" Bass asked, still laughing.

"Has anyone seen Conner? I can not find him anywhere."

But before anyone had a chance to really register what she'd said or even attempt to worry about the missing member of their family, an enormous explosion shook the ground beneath them. Bass, Miles, Charlie, and Jeremy were all on their feet in an instant looking towards Nunez's former compund as the the source of the noise. Bright orange and red flames were bursting into the sky. Nunez's mansion was on fire.

They all took off at a run. Not that there was much that they could do about the fire, but there was something to be done for whoever was trying to terrorize the town again. Just as they were approaching the gates, a lone figure staggered out of them using his arm to to cover his face in order to keep out the smoke.

Maya ran forward to meet the man, flinging her arms around him in relief. "Conner! Where have you been? I was so worried. What happened here? Why is the mansion on fire? Are you alright?"

She was speaking so quickly that Conner had to physically shake her shoulders to calm her down. "I'm fine, Maya. Relax." She huffed something in Spanish and grabbed his face in her hands as if inspecting him for injuries. It was only a matter of moments before half the town was standing outside the gates with them, watching as the entire house was engulfed in flames.

Conner wrapped an arm around Maya's shoulders and shrugged apologetically. "Sorry I didn't tell you guys where I was going. I just figured that this was one last thing that I needed to fix." He jerked his head in the direction of the burning house.

"You blew up the mansion?" Bass asked, sounding both annoyed and impressed.

He shrugged again, this time looking smug. "Yeah, I figured no one would mind getting rid of such an eyesore. Now they'll be able to walk down the street without the memory of Nunez looming over them."

Maya smiled up at him fondly and kissed him on the cheek. "It's perfect. I'm proud of you." He grinned happily, his eyes only for Maya as they left the scene of the burning house and went back to the bar. It seemed that all of the people had left to watch the fire, so the six of them picked a table and gathered around it. Bass sat with Charlie tucked against one side and Miles lounging back in his chair on the other. Conner and Maya cuddled up together across from them with Jeremy at the end of the table, pouring drinks to pass around.

He raised his glass and said, "to Mexico."

Everyone chuckled as he passed Conner a glass. "To explosives."

"Hear, hear," Miles laughed.

Maya lifted her glass and gave Conner a big smile. "To my hero." They all groaned good naturedly.

Miles raised his glass with a grimace and looked at the two happy couples at the table. "To really thick walls."

Bass punched him in the arm and looked around at everyone, his eyes stopping on Charlie. "To finally getting the girl."

She rolled her eyes playfully as everyone made disgusted faces and looked around at the six people surrounding the table. Raising her glass, Charlie said, "to family."

* * *

A/N Ah, the end! Thank you so much for reading, you guys truly are amazing.


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